Bronko Hoang’s pain at learning fate of pregnant wife
Car crash survivor Bronko Hoang screamed in agony when he was finally told the unbearable news his heavily pregnant wife and their unborn twins died in the horror pileup.
NSW
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Car crash survivor Bronko Hoang screamed in agony when he was finally told the unbearable news his heavily pregnant wife and their unborn twins died in the horror pileup.
The charity worker — whose wife Katherine was a week from giving birth — broke down on Friday as a doctor and social worker broke the news at his bedside at Westmead Hospital.
“He screamed so loudly, ‘Why Katherine? Please not the babies’,” his aunt Pham Crawford told The Daily Telegraph. “He can’t stop crying and feels guilty he’s the only one who survived.”
Ms Crawford said doctors had to sedate Mr Hoang to calm him down.
“He’s in complete shock and in so much pain,” she said.
“We’re all devastated, it would have been the first grandchildren for both families.”
Miraculously, Mr Hoang survived the September 28 crash with broken ribs, a smashed leg and fractured cheekbone.
The Nissan Tiida he was travelling in collided with a Mazda driven by Richard Moananu — allegedly at speeds of more than 100km/h — on Northern Road at Orchard Hills in Sydney’s West. Mr Hoang was in the front passenger seat, supervising a young relative on a learner’s licence.
Ms Hoang, 23, was in the back seat. Both she and the female relative died at the scene.
The couple last month moved into her family’s home in Glenmore Park so her parents could be on hand to help with the newborns.
Ms Crawford said she was worried about Mr Hoang. “He’s in a bad state and needs a leg operation tomorrow,” she said. “When I call him, he keeps saying, ‘Everything hurts so much’.”
Moananu, a father-of-four who police say was unlicensed, faced 10 charges at a bedside court hearing in Westmead Hospital last week after sustaining severe leg injuries when he allegedly steered the car onto the wrong side of the road.
The charges include two counts of manslaughter, two counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death and two counts of negligent driving occasioning death.
Tributes have poured in for the Hoang family through a GoFundMe page set up by relative Lucy La. One post, by Patricia Mills, reads: “I had lunch at work with Bronko a couple of weeks ago and he was so excited about his future with the birth of his babies. I’m so sorry for the Hoang family … Such a tragic loss for everyone.”