Jack Bowd faces court after catastrophic quad-fatal crash near Dubbo

The sole survivor in a horror head-on crash which killed four people in the state’s central west late last month has fronted court.

Parkes couple Graham and Sue Tait died in the horror collision near Dubbo. Picture: GoFundMe

The driver behind the wheel of a Toyota HiLux involved in a horror head-on crash which killed four people in the state’s central west late last month has fronted court for the first time.

Jack Bowd was the sole survivor in the collision on the Newell Highway at Tomingley, about 50km southwest of Dubbo, shortly after 9pm on Friday, September 27.

Bowd’s two teenage passengers Lochie Jacob, 18, and Joey Urban, 19, died as well as Parkes couple Sue and Graham Tait – both 57 – who are survived by five children aged between 16 and 26.

According to police, emergency services treated Bowd at the scene before he was taken to Dubbo Hospital with leg injuries before being arrested three days later after he was discharged.

Lochie Jacobs and Joey Urban had been friends since childhood. picture: GoFundMe

Bowd, of Molong, was taken to Dubbo Police Station and charged with four counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, driving without a seatbelt and driving with two passengers not properly fastened.

Mrs Tait was a former teacher and assistant director of Parkes Early Childhood Centre, while her husband Graham was a coach driver.

“The saddest thing is that Sue and Graham were less than an hour away from getting home,” said Amii Marchant, the director of the early childhood centre where Mrs Tait had worked for 17 years.

Friends pay tribute to the two teenagers at the scene of a tragic car crash.

“The community is rallying around [the couple’s children] but it’s a very sensitive time for the five children – they’ve lost both their parents overnight,” she said.

A friend of Mr Jacobs – who was a student at St Stanislaus’ Agricultural College in Bathurst – said his father would have been proud of him had he been alive.

Writing on Facebook Tanya Lee said: “RIP Lochie give your dad the biggest hug he will be so proud of the young man you have grown to be.”

Tributes also flowed for Mr Urban, an aspiring rodeo bull rider, who had been friends with Lochie since childhood.

His sister Maddie wrote on social media that she would “drink a few Tooheys” for him.

Jack Bowd appeared in Dubbo Local Court on Monday.

“The best brother a sister could ask for,” she wrote.

“I love you so incredibly much. You will be missed by so many.”

Bowd fronted Dubbo Local Court on Monday before Magistrate Gary Wilson when the matter was briefly mentioned for the first time.

The case was adjourned until December with Bowd’s bail continued.

Bowd is required to report to police twice a week and not occupy the driver’s seat of a vehicle.

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