Father finds purpose in daughter tragic road crash death

His young daughter was about to embark on her next big adventure when her life was cut short by a truck driver’s callous mistake. Now he is fighting to save other families from the same fate.

Peter Frazer is haunted by the sight of his daughter’s body laid out for identification.

At just 23-years-old, Sarah was travelling along the Hume Highway from her home in the Blue Mountains to start university in Wagga Wagga in February 2012.

On any other day it would have been an uneventful trip, but part way along Sarah’s car broke down.

“Her car was left in an emergency lane that was only 1.5m wide which meant her vehicle overhung into the lane that was a 110km/h,” Mr Frazer said.

Sarah called for an NRMA tow truck, and as her car was being loaded onto the flat-bed a second truck roared past.

It hit Sarah and the NRMA mechanic, ending their lives in an instant.

Mr Frazer said his world collapsed when he received the call from the police that no parent should have to endure.

“I remain shattered to this day,” he said.

“My family and I are still in counselling.

“People assume that when a person is killed that the family gets over it, but that’s not the way it happens.

“Having to view my daughter through a glass screen, her body in pieces and having to identify her has created a trauma that I will never get over.”

After the crash, Mr Frazer and his family tied a small yellow ribbon to their car to remember their lost daughter.

Assistant Commissioner Charysse Pond and Peter Frazer promoting road safety and Operation Zero in the Darling Downs. Picture: Nev Madsen.

“Yellow was Sarah’s favourite colour,” he said.

In the days and weeks that followed, their close-knit Blue Mountains community joined in the memorial, and roads were filled with cars adorned with little yellow ribbons.

Mr Frazer found a purpose in Sarah’s passing and today he is dedicated to promoting road safety through the Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) Group.

He was in Toowoomba yesterday as part of the Darling Down’s police Operation Zero initiative that aims to have zero fatal crashes in our region in July.

The operation involved high visibility police patrols of the region’s road along with extra speed traps and RBTs.

Sadly at least three people have died in crashes near Toowoomba in the past two weeks.

“These are not accidents, they are crashes, we know what causes them, and we know what to do about it,” Mr Frazer said.

To date, the QPS Southern Region has lost 39 lives in road crashes, which is 15 more lives lost than at the same time last year.

About 90 per cent of crashes involved at least one of the Fatal Five: drink or drug driving, speeding, failure to wear a seatbelt, distracted driving and fatigue.

In Sarah’s case, it was distracted driving with a police investigation finding the culpable driver was using his phone and had his eyes off the road for a full 500 metres before the crash.

“If we can as a community say we are going to get out there and protect each other, to say, ‘I’ll look after your family, you look after mine,’ we will all get home safe,” Mr Frazer said.