Every day is a living nightmare for a former Dubbo couple who lost their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in a tragic road collapse at Somersby last year.

Adam Holt, his partner Roslyn Bragg and their daughters Jasmine, 3, and Madison, 2, died after their car plunged into a collapsed culvert during heavy rains at Somersby, north of Sydney on June 8, 2007.

Ms Bragg’s nephew Travis Bragg, 9, was also killed.

Thirteen months on Jim Bragg fought back tears as he spoke to the Daily Liberal yesterday.

“Everything is still so raw, it’s on your mind when you go to bed at night and the first thing you wake up with in the morning,” Mr Bragg said. “They were a lovely couple who doted on their children and they worked two jobs each for them. They were a dedicated family.”

Jim and Helen Bragg ran a catering business in Dubbo for 20 years, they now live in Bateau Bay near Gosford.

Their daughter Roslyn attended Dubbo High School and the family still has close friends in town.

Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon will deliver his findings on the inquest into the bridge collapse in September.

Mr Bragg said the media attention surrounding the incident had been hard to deal with.

“We cop media attention every day, there is always a news camera parked out on our front lawn,” he said.

Mr Bragg said he wanted to thank the Dubbo community for their support.

“We have lots of friends in Dubbo and people are always phoning us to see how we are going,” he said.

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority has blamed Gosford Council for the collapse of the culvert.

At a recent hearing the RTA submitted that the council was responsible for the section of road that collapsed and could not fall back on the excuse that it was unaware of the susceptibility of corrugated iron pipes to corrode and cause culverts to fail.

Mr Bragg said there had been a lot of finger pointing and buck-passing.

“Our barrister said the incompetence of Gosford Council has a Laurel and Hardy approach to business, meaning they bungled their way through the entire 30-odd years of these culverts,” he said.

“There has been terrible things like finger pointing towards Adam because toxicology reports revealed he had minimal traces of cannabis and alcohol, but that’s not the point.

“If the road was there then none of this would ever have happened,” he said.

belinda.galloway

@ruralpress.com

Mrs Bragg said the memories from the tragic day in June last year still haunt him.

“We heard the news three hours after it happened, we didn’t have a clue that the accident had occurred,” Mr Bragg said.

“We searched the hospitals, Roslyn was meant to turn up at her sister’s place for dinner and she never turned up,” he said.