The five children of a couple killed in a head-on crash in central west NSW have been left reliant on public help to get them through the shock of losing both their parents.
The four daughters and son of coach driver Graham Tait and his kindergarten school director wife Sue ‘did everything together as a family’, reports say.
The children – Bernadette, Jessica, Katherine, Alec and Felicity – do not have many other relatives to support them.
The Taits, both aged 57, died when their van collided with a ute carrying two teenagers and a 23-year-old man on the Newell Highway, 35km south of Dubbo, at 9.20pm last Friday night.
The fatal crash also took the lives of Lochie Jacobs, 18, and his childhood friend Joey Urban, 19, who were passengers in a Toyota HiLux which crashed head-on with the Tait’s van.
The 23-year-old driver of the ute, who sustained leg injuries, has since been charged with four counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, driving in a dangerous manner, not wearing a seatbelt properly fastened and driving with passenger seatbelts not properly fastened.
Ms Tait was assistant director of Parkes Early Childhood Centre where she taught for 17 years, and Graham Tait was was a coach driver in the Parkes community.
The centre’s director and family spokesperson Amii Marchant said the loving mum played a vital role in the lives of many children.
‘She was so important, like hundreds of children over the years she has now taught, we’ll remember her beautiful big loud laugh,’ Ms Marchant said.
‘She actually had a soft spot for the two-year-old room, the little toddlers. You have to be a very, very special person to thoroughly enjoy that room every day.’
Ms Marchant said Mr Tait was a ‘collector … of cars, and books, and model cars, gramophones even.
‘He was just an amazing dad and husband.’
A gofundme campaign has been launched to assist their five children, aged from 16 to 26.
‘They don’t have a lot of extended family to support them,’ Ms Marchant said.
‘The GoFundMe is to help them get through whatever they need to for the next little bit, [so] they don’t need to worry.’
A Parkes Early Childhood Centre (PECC) spokesman added: ‘Sue was known for being a strong constant backbone of PECC who thoroughly enjoyed coming to work each and every day.
‘Her husband Graham was a well respected and experienced coach driver.’
The childhood centre has remained open despite the tragedy.
Parkes Shire Council deputy mayor Marg Applebee shared a touching memory of the pair.
‘This was such heartbreaking news. I first met Sue when my men were just little people. It is hard to believe I will never see her smiling, friendly face again,’ she said.
‘Thank you Miss Sue and Graham for being part of the positive, reliable, encouraging framework of our community.
‘Love to your family, dear people. Our community wraps their arms around you all. Pieces of our community are gone, but not forgotten.’
Over 100 locals shared memories on social media of the Taits’ kindness at work and in the community.
Former parents and students remembered ‘Miss Sue’ as a woman who ‘always had a happy, welcoming smile’.
A neighbour recalled years spent visiting the Taits’ ‘happy household’ for a ‘cuppa and a chat’.
‘A very empathetic, sensitive soul, Sue always had a smile and positive attitude – something that endeared her to all PECC’s staff and families over the years,’ another remembered.
‘I will forever be grateful for her encouragement in parenting, her guidance in helping my daughter grow with confidence and her commitment to our community,’ one thankful mother wrote.
The GoFundMe has now raised over $35,000 to help support the Tait children.
At the crash scene last Friday, paramedics desperately tried to revive teenagers Lochie Jacobs and Joey Urban, but they died at the scene.
Tributes have poured in for the young men, with loved ones lamenting losing Lochie just two years after burying his father.
‘Rest in peace Lochie, give your dad the biggest hug, he will be so proud of the young man you have grown to be,’ one loved one wrote.
‘Last night the world lost a beautiful young man. Two years ago, I attended your father’s funeral but I never thought I would have to go to your funeral Lochie,’ another said.
Some of the debris from the crash remained by the side of the highway on Sunday, where friends of the teenagers’ began to lay flowers in honour of the best mates.
Mr Urban’s sister remembered him as the ‘best brother a sister could ask for’ and said she would ‘drink a few Tooheys’ on his behalf.
‘I love you so incredibly much, you will be missed by so many,’ she wrote.
Another friend said they can ‘rest easy, beautiful boys’.
‘The world is so cruel at times! Too young,’ they wrote.
Mr Jacobs had run an agricultural business, Jacobs Rural Contracting, since April after finishing school at St Stanislaus’ Agricultural College in Bathurst.
His final post to social media on Wednesday urged his followers to donate to his friend’s fundraiser for mental health.
Mr Urban was known as ‘one of the funniest buggers’ among his friends.
‘My thoughts are with everyone and all the families affected by this horror,’ local MP Stephen Lawrence said on Sunday.
‘I know the Parkes community will rally around your children.’
Mr Lawrence described the crash as an ‘appalling carnage’ that took the lives of four people, raising NSW’s road death toll to 248 this year.
Investigators are looking into whether one of the drivers overtook a road train on double lines and into a blind corner just prior to the crash.
First responders to the crash have reportedly been receiving counselling while the mangled vehicles have been seized as part of investigations.
The driver charged over the crash will appear in Dubbo Local Court on October 21.