Crash victim's pregnant partner says she has nowhere to go

Parminder 'Perry' Singh Jabbal, 27, died in a crash in Tauranga last week. Photo supplied

A pregnant Rotorua woman says she has nowhere to go after her partner was killed in a car crash last week.

Jabbal's partner Saraiah Waerea said he was on his way to pick her up to go an ultrasound later that day when he died.

Indian national Parminder 'Perry' Singh Jabbal, 27, of Tauranga, died in a head-on collision between his car and a truck on State Highway 36 in the early hours of July 11.

The couple decided to move in together in Tauranga earlier this year, close to his job as an in-home carer.

They found a little shed for rent in Ōhauiti.

Landlord Marama Ormsby said she liked Jabbal immediately: "I could tell he was a good person".

Waerea said they had been applying for more private rentals when he died, but in the long term had talked about getting married and moving to India.

She has been staying with a friend in Rotorua since he died. Not knowing many people in Tauranga, and not having a car, she felt she had nowhere else to go.

"I am struggling at the moment. I will stay with a friend until I can find me and baby a house in Rotorua."

Waerea, who is due in October, said the couple celebrated her 25th birthday with her family in Rotorua on July 9.

Jabbal headed back to Tauranga alone for work the next day.

He called her about 1am on July 11 saying he was coming to pick her up.

Waerea said she was expecting him to arrive within 90 minutes and she started worrying when he didn't turn up.

"I had a bad feeling starting to come over me. I was ringing the police telling them to go see if there had been an accident on State Highway 36.

"Sure enough, I was right."

Waerea said she and Jabbal - known as Perry - met on Facebook in January 2017, a year and a half after he arrived in New Zealand to study healthcare.

They started going out, and Waerea said one of their favourite things to do was visit Mauao.

"I would always be lazy, and he would make me go up, and push me saying 'come on, you can do it'.

"I loved that he was such a happy, good man. He was always so positive ... and hardworking."

She credited him for turning her life around.

"I was kind of a bad person when we met. He made me the lady I am today."

They found out she was eight weeks pregnant in March this year and, while it was a surprise, they were excited to become parents, she said.

"Perry cried when he heard the baby's heartbeat."

At the 22 week scan, the couple found out they were having a boy. Waerea said it was her idea to name him Parminder Junior.

Waerea said she and Jabbal's family in India did not agree about what to do with his remains.

They had offered to bring her to India, she said, but she was afraid to go alone and, in any case, had been told she could not fly at this stage of her pregnancy.

She wanted him to be cremated and his ashes split between her and his family in India "so we can both have a piece of him."

Jabbal's brother Jasneet Singh said the family wanted to bring his body home to India to receive last rites.

He said family members were booking flights to travel to New Zealand to talk to Waerea, and she said she was willing to meet them.

Inquiries by both the police and a coroner into Jabbal's death were continuing.