Tim Newton, his wife and two children, were just two-and-a-half hours into an eight-month camping trip when a head-on collision with a truck on a sweeping bend at Cockwhy brought their journey to a grinding halt.

The Bomaderry family was towing a caravan with their new four-wheel wheel drive when the crash occurred in wet conditions on the notorious stretch of road on February 19, 2018.

“We’ve had a pretty hard time with some personal things over the last few years with our family and this was our time to take a break and get away from it for eight months,” Mr Newton said.

“We decided to rent our house out and just pack up and start heading around. We only made it two and a half hours unfortunately.”

Mr Newton said a few millimetres could have made the difference between life and death.

Police photos from the scene showed just how close all involved were to disaster.

With the help of Good Samaritans, all walked free with only minor injuries. As Friday’s double fatality at Jerrawangala shows, the story could have been very different.

“After the horrible, horrific accident happened I immediately checked to see if Jessie and Lucy were still in the back and were still conscious. Tennille was in the passenger seat; the girls started crying,” Mr Newton said.

“I heard this hissing sound and I could only assume that it might be gas, so I said let’s climb out. I couldn’t get out my side, so Tennille and myself both went out the passenger side. 

“Tennille grabbed Lucy out of her seat and I grabbed Jessie and we ran up the road about 40 metres where a guy named Tony stopped in a little hatchback car and I put the girls in the back of his car to stay out of the rain.

“He offered to drive them in to Batemans Bay Hospital as it was taking some time for the ambulance to arrive.”

The psychological scars are deep and Mr Newton wants action.

“My poor little daughter (aged four) is a bit beside herself at times. She says to me she keeps seeing it and she doesn’t want another crash to happen,” Mr Newton said.

“It’s pretty heart-wrenching to have those awful conversations with her and reassure her that everything is going to be okay.”

The Newton’s crash is one of three head-on collisions on the Princes Highway between Nowra and Batemans Bay in eight weeks, claiming seven lives.

Speaking in Moruya on Friday, February 23, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance said South Coast motorists would have to wait at least two years for further upgrades.

Mr Newton said the impact of the crash could have been minimised or avoided altogether had wire rope dividers been installed.

“This could be a totally different story if there was a barrier to stop oncoming traffic crossing the lane,” he said.

“We can’t stop weather events like rain, and people still need to drive, so we just need to do everything we can to prevent people crossing the lanes.

“Our crash could’ve been down to pure millimetres ... you never know what would have happened.”

The NRMA in 2014 called for wire dividers to be installed all the way to the Victorian border.

The family must pick up the financial pieces: their car and caravan were destroyed, and uninsured personal belongings.

Mr Newton said it was a coincidence he had installed safety features on the car in the lead up to the family’s trip.

“I’m not a road expert, but you just have to be hyper vigilant at all times. You have to be ready for anything and that’s what I actually thought a few weeks prior by getting a bull bar installed on the car,” he said.

Thanks to the generosity of donors via an online appeal, the Newtons haven’t given up on their road trip plans.

“We’ve just got to pick up the pieces, count our fingers and toes and hopefully plan on future travels sooner rather than later,” he said.

Donate to the GoFundMe page here.