Husband and three children die as car plunges into reservoir
An early Easter holiday turned to horrific tragedy when a car carrying a family of five plunged into a reservoir, killing four.
The scene at Llyn Clywedog Photo: PA
3:34AM BST 21 Apr 2011
A mother at the wheel of the Peugeot 807 survived the devastating incident which claimed the lives of her husband and three children.
A Ford Mondeo, whose driver has been arrested, is removed from the scene
Police today are trying to piece together the last moments before tragedy struck yesterday at the Bwlch y Gle Dam, Clywedog, Llanidloes, in mid Wales.
A man from the Llanidloes area, arrested on suspicion of causing the deaths by dangerous driving, continues to be questioned. He was driving a Ford Mondeo which is believed to be responsible for forcing the car containing the family-of-five off the road.
The family are believed to have been holidaying in mid Wales after travelling from their home in Pontypridd, near Cardiff. The Peugeot was retrieved from deep water into which it had plunged at the reservoir by a rescue team last night.
All four bodies it contained, that of a man and three children, had previously been reclaimed from the car. Both cars involved in the tragic collision were then removed from the scene.
Dyfed Powys Police said no further information about the victims of the tragedy would be issued until next of kin had been informed. The section of road where the accident happened goes down to the edge of the reservoir and is flanked by rolling hills.
The immediate area is regarded as a local beauty spot and is sparsely populated, largely by farming families. Police were called to the scene of the tragedy yesterday at around 2.30pm.
A rescue crew on board a Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley, based in Anglesey, was also quickly on the scene. An RAF spokesman said: ''We were called to reports that a car had gone into the water with five people inside. We sent a crew and the incident is ongoing.''
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said two fire crews and two boats were involved in the operation. A worker at a nearby car showroom said she had heard one car had clipped another, sending one of the vehicles plummeting beneath the surface of the water.
''We saw lots of police cars going past, ambulances and two recovery boats,'' said the woman, who did not want to be named. ''The story is one car clipped another and one went into the dam.
''They have closed the road, it's a B-road, it's not somewhere where spectators can go. ''There was an ambulance coming up with its sirens going - it was going out of the valley on its way to either Shrewsbury or Aberystwyth.''
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