'I thank my lucky stars I still have one'

Donald Coulter has spent almost every minute with his surviving daughter, Abigail, since the crash on Tuesday night that killed his 6-year-old, Rebecca, and his former wife, Pip Manning. Photo / Otago Daily Times

Holding his only surviving daughter after a horror car crash, Donald Coulter says: "I thank my lucky stars I still have one. I still wish I had two."

And he wants to meet the "poor bastard" truck driver involved in the collision that killed his ex-wife Phillipa "Pip" Manning, 43, and daughter Rebecca, 6, this week.

"I have to meet ... him, because if I don't, imagine how he is going to go through life."

At 2.20am on Wednesday, two police officers arrived at Mr Coulter's Otago home to tell him Ms Manning and little Rebecca were dead and his other daughter, Abigail, 3, had been airlifted to Dunedin Hospital.

"It is anyone's worst nightmare."

Yesterday, holding Abigail, who had not long before been discharged from hospital, Mr Coulter said the accident had been a horrific ordeal for the family and the communities of Waihola and Milton.

He had not slept since the news and spent little time apart from Abigail, who cried for her dad as soon as they were separated.

"I have had one taken ... I am not having another," he said.

Abigail, who turned 3 the day after the tragedy, was in a back seat when her mother's station wagon and a truck-and-trailer unit collided 4km south of Milton on SH1.

At 7.45am, Mr Coulter visited Waihola District School to tell staff that Rebecca - who had been excited about starting her third year there - was dead. "I didn't want them to hear it from anyone else."

He said the accident happened on his mother's birthday. She often cared for her grandchildren.

Mr Coulter said he was amazed by the support from the community and his employer, Milburn Lime.

He has contacted Mainfreight to arrange a meeting with the truck driver involved.

He understood the driver, who was in his 20s, was devastated and the family were keen for him to have closure over the accident.

The family also joined police in labelling as "heroic" the actions of a passing Northern Southland Transport truck driver who pulled Abigail from the burning car.

"I want to meet this fellow as well, so he can meet Abigail in different circumstances," Mr Coulter said.

He had not yet worked out to tell Abigail about the accident, but planned to save newspaper clippings to show her at a later date.

The family expressed their sadness at losing Pip, a radiographer with Dunedin- based Otago Radiology. Her parents are at present visiting from Britain.

Mr Coulter said he and Ms Manning met on the Falkland Islands and the territory's small population, including his two sons from a previous relationship, were feeling devastated over the accident.

Rebecca, who was born premature weighing only 2 pounds, spent the first three months of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit at Dunedin. She was a "fighter", he said. "She was a loving child. She had so much to live for."

Mr Coulter said he was grateful he had honoured a promise to take "my girls" on their first camping trip, through Twizel, Cromwell and Lumsden, three weeks ago.

"Becks just wanted to catch a fish."

He was impressed when she helped reel in her own brown trout. "She was just so active".

He described Rebecca as an animal lover who was excited about owning an as-yet-unnamed pup and about getting a white horse for her 7th birthday. "The countdown started from when she was 4 years old."

The family were now looking for white horses and possibly a cart to send off their little girl at her joint funeral. "I want her to have her last trip on a horse, because that is only fitting."

- Otago Daily Times