Roadside memorial in honour of Oatlands crash victims repaired 01/06/2021|1min
A roadside memorial in honour of four children who were killed in Oatlands has been repaired after it was vandalised over the weekend.
The makeshift shrine, which contained images of the Abdallah siblings - Antony, Angelina, and Sienna - and their cousin Veronique Sakr, was erected in the wake of their deaths in February last year.
It comes as Oatlands Golf Club faces public backlash after the board rejected proposals from Parramatta City Council to establish a permanent memorial which would encroach on the grounds of the golf course.
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Cruel blow for Oatlands crash family Danny and Leila Abdallah’s children were killed along with their cousin by a drunk driver last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper
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More agony has been inflicted on grieving parents Danny and Leila Abdallah after the memorial dedicated to their children was pulled down at the site where they were killed in Sydney’s northwest.
Drunk driver Samuel Davidson ploughed into a group of seven children, who had left a family gathering to get ice-cream at a nearby shop, at Oatlands on February 1 last year.
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Mother’s Day makes me think of two mothers coincidentally linked to Oatlands Golf Club: 2021 Mother of the Year Leila Abdallah and my own mother Grace Pitt (nee Aiken).
Abdallah’s name is tragically linked to Oatlands because that’s where three of her six children died in a car accident in February last year while walking to the shops along the footpath next to the golf course fence. My mother’s family name is more happily associated with the Oatlands/Dundas district, because it is where she and all our family lived since 1938 on acreage adjacent to what is now the sixth fairway.
A statement from the families today asked the board to reconsider its refusal of the commemorative garden. We love our children dearly and we will always grieve the loss of our beautiful kids, the families said. Our proposed commemorative garden simply honours our children, Antony, Angelina, Sienna and Veronique and our survivors Liana, Charbel and Mabelle. We respectfully ask the board to reconsider its decision so that our children can be honoured and the community can have a place to remember the Oatlands tragedy, which had such an impact on our nation. The spot where the children tragically lost their lives. Picture: Joel Carrett
Bridget Sakr lost daughter Veronique, 11, last February when she was hit by driver Samuel Davidson, while walking to buy ice cream with her cousins in Oatlands.
The families wanted to have a memorial garden at Oatlands Golf Club, which is right next to where the accident happened.
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Bridget Sakr lost her daughter when she was hit by a car last February in Oatlands, Sydney.(Nine)
But after a series of submissions with the help of Parramatta Council, the plan has been rejected by the club for being too big, with officials refusing to negotiate any more.
Mrs Sakr said the families are devastated.