Lurak's three daughters pictured just days before the crash. Photo / GoFundMe
Lurak's three daughters pictured just days before the crash. Photo / GoFundMe
Three young children are dead and their father has been left paralysed after a suspected intoxicated driver crashed into their car.
Somchai Lurak, 26, was driving with his children Aneena, 6, Kya, 5, and Drayka, 3, and fiancee Emma Weigand on August 11 when a car ploughed into the backof them at a roadworks traffic light, near Bellevue, Idaho, police said.
Two of the children were pronounced dead at the scene, and 3-year-old Drayka of Mountain Home died at a Boise hospital.
The father was listed in critical condition at a Boise hospital on Monday, and his partner, 26, was also hospitalised suffering several fractures in the crash.
When Lurak woke up in hospital, he was told by his brother that he had lost his three children in the horrific accident.
"We had to wait till he was less sedated to tell him that his beautiful daughters were dead. They were the sweetest girls," brother Anthony Smock told The Sun.
Lurak is still recovering in hospital trying to keep a brave face, but his brother knows he is "devastated" inside.
Somchai Lurak is recovering in hospital from his life-changing injuries. Photo / GoFundMe
"Our family have three pieces of our hearts missing forever now," Smock said.
His brother described Lurak as an incomplete quadriplegic - he has feeling in his legs but can't move. It is unclear if he will ever be able to walk again.
Smock and his family now want to use his nieces' deaths as a poignant reminder to those considering drink-driving.
Weigand's mother Sharron Weigand, who treated the girls as granddaughters, told US television statio 7KTVB the three children were "the sweetest girls ever".
"They loved music, they always loved to come over to my house because my house is filled with drum sets and guitars and they were always interested in it."
The sheriff's office said the driver of the pickup, 36-year-old Matthew R Park of Fairfield, appeared to be uninjured and was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated as his blood-alcohol level was allegedly over the legal limit, 7KTVB reported.
He will face a jury trial in February after pleading not guilty to vehicular manslaughter charges.
If convicted, Park could face a sentence of up to 75 years in prison.
