Danny Abdallah, the father of three of the children, says they were just walking innocently and has pleaded with drivers to be careful

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

The father of three of four children killed after a car crashed into them while walking on a Sydney footpath has spoken of his devastating loss.

Danny Abdallah, the father of Sienna, aged 9, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13, told reporters on Sunday he was heartbroken.

“My name is Daniel Abdallah, I have a wife, Leila, and six beautiful children I’ve been blessed with. Yesterday, I lost three of my children,” he said.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m numb, probably that’s what I feel at the moment. All I want to say is please, drivers, be careful,” Abdallah said.

“These kids were just walking innocently, enjoying each other’s company ... and this morning I woke up and I have lost three kids.”

The fourth child to die was Veronique Sakr, 11, the siblings’ cousin.

Samuel William Davidson, 29, was on Saturday night arrested after allegedly returning a positive result in a roadside breath test and taken for a breath analysis.

He allegedly recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.150 – three times over the limit – and has now been charged with four counts of manslaughter as well as dangerous driving occasioning death, dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, negligent driving, drink-driving and other offences.

Davidson’s case was on Sunday heard at Parramatta bail court. He did not appear in court and did not apply for bail, which was formally refused by magistrate John McIntosh.

He’s scheduled to return to Parramatta local court on 2 April.

Emergency services were called to Oatlands, near Parramatta, at about 8pm on Saturday, following reports that several people had been struck by a vehicle, including children who were riding bikes.

Four of the children died at the scene, police said. A fifth child, 11, was taken to the Children’s hospital at Westmead in a critical condition but is now in a serious but stable condition.

Two other girls, aged 10 and 13, suffered minor injuries. The injured children were also cousins.

The group of seven children had been travelling on the footpath on their way to buy ice cream when police believe the four-wheel drive mounted the kerb and hit them, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

The New South Wales Ambulance acting superintendent, Andrew McAlpine, on Saturday evening said paramedics had arrived to a horrific scene.

“This is incredibly hard for the emergency services notwithstanding the losses that the families have sustained,” McAlpine told reporters.

“It’s very, very difficult for police, for fire rescue, for paramedics to be confronted with such chaos and carnage.”

Police said the family were at the hospital with relatives.

“They’re obviously very distraught and under these circumstances we can’t provide much information to them at this stage so that’s difficult for them,” acting assistant commissioner Jason Joyce said.

A local described how residents tried to save the children.

“People ran over and were doing CPR until the paramedics got here,” the witness said.

“One woman was screaming out ‘save them, save them’.”

Distraught members of the Oatlands community placed flowers at the scene of the tragedy on Sunday.

Veronique had just started high school at Santa Sabina College in Strathfield last week. A statement issued by the school said: “Veronique has been a member of the Santa Sabina community since Year 3 and last week was so excited to be moving onto the Secondary campus.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with all of Veronique’s family and friends at this very sad time.”