A mum-of-two was killed when the car she was in with her husband, two children and a young family friend overturned.
But shockingly as Elmarie Lubbe lay dead, the four survivors managed to get out of the wreckage, only to be killed moments later by a hit and run driver.
Theuns Lubbe had left a work barbecue early to get his children home for bed, taking a friend's six-year-old child with them.
The 39-year-old lost control of his Chery QQ3 car on a corner, close to their home in Allanridge, South Africa.
The vehicle rolled several times killing 38-year-old Elmarie instantly.
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Realising his wife had not survived the crash, Theuns managed to get himself and the three children out the wreck.
The dad took his son Tristen, 8, and daughter Amory, 4, and a family friend’s child Juliana Gomez, 6, to the rear of the car where he placed a warning triangle on the road for safety.
Seconds later a Ford Ranger station wagon came round the country road, killing all four.
Theuns' cousin, Neels Lubbe told News24: “Theuns was like a son to me and when he was down and out I helped him with a place to live and bought him a car, but then he got a job and things were going very well for him.
“The children meant everything to him I know he would have done anything to avoid this happening.
"It must have happened very quickly. This has just devastated so many."
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The father-of-two worked for JBL Construction at Harmony gold mines’ Eland Shaft.
Juliana was best friends with his children and had been staying with them for two weeks while her mother Anna Engelbrecht was in hospital undergoing treatment.
South African Police Service’s Captain Ansie Ventner who went to the scene of the horrific accident confirmed the sequence of events but said he did not know what caused the initial crash.
He said they had traced the Ford Ranger to a person living in Stilfontein in North West Province adding: “We are still trying to establish who was driving the [car] at the time of the accident”.
