The photo of the car they use is a new shiny Jeep
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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/07/1065292569825.html
October 7, 2003 - 12:46PM
The parents of two children swept to their deaths in a 4WD at a West Australian
river crossing have told how the river looked like a millpond before their vehicle entered the water.
But they said beneath the surface the
Blackwood River was a torrent, with the strong current instantly sweeping their vehicle backwards as the water rose above the jeep's bonnet.
Craig Anstey, 37, and his de facto wife
Clare Smyth, 31, were speaking about their disastrous attempt to drive over a concrete
river crossing platform at Jalbarragup, 300km south of
Perth, on Friday night.
The couple managed to get free of the Jeep Cherokee but their children - Mr Anstey's seven-year-old son Jack and Ms Smyth's eight-year-old daughter Ashleigh Mungur - were trapped inside.
The two children were swept to their deaths when the 4WD sank and was washed downstream.
Mr Anstey told the West Australian newspaper he had crossed the river about six times in five years without incident, although the water level was higher on Friday night than it had been at the other times.
He said he had waded into the river before attempting the crossing, and had then walked up the riverbank and shone his spotlights onto the water to try to see the bottom.
Half way across the river, the water rose across the jeep's bonnet.
"Before I knew it, all of a sudden I am going backwards down the river," Mr Anstey told the newspaper.
Mr Anstey escaped underwater through the rolled-down driver's window. He was unable to open the doors to try to free the children.
"I could just see the rear lights of the car going down. I tried to swim towards it," he said.
"It was horrifying. I was counting the seconds in my head how long the kids were breathing."
Ms Smyth said the accident was a freak of nature.
"From our end (of the crossing) to the other end it looked like glass," she said.
"There was an undercurrent that there was no way we could have been aware of."
The youngsters' bodies were found by
police divers on Saturday still inside the vehicle, which had been carried 50 metres downstream by the strong current.
Police had to use heavy-duty machinery, including bulldozers, to pull the jeep from the river.
Nannup Shire president Barbara Dunnet said yesterday the
river crossing was meant only for summer use, to allow emergency vehicles access to the high fire-risk area in the event of a blaze.
She said the shire had tried to restrict access to the crossing but its efforts had been futile.
Council roads officials are conducting a full assessment of the crossing, before deciding its future.