Ephream Nkosi can still hear his 10-year-old excitedly talking about the "horsepower" of the new Golf R7 when they spotted one at a petrol station in central Middelburg last Friday night. "He was absolutely car mad," he said of his boy, Lwazi."He said: 'Daddy, you should get a car like that.' It was Lwazi's favourite car."They realised the Golf belonged to family friend Joe Magagula. He had picked up the keys hours earlier.Nkosi had no qualms when Magagula invited Lwazi and his siblings, Lethokuhle, 7, and Minenhle, 5, for a quick drive around the block."I didn't worry about them getting into the car with Joe. We had known each other since childhood. We were like family," he said."They won't be long," Nkosi thought to himself as Magagula turned right into Walter Sisulu Street.His three children sat in the back. Magagula's 10-year-old son, Lefu, was in the front passenger seat.But moments later an ambulance and a police car came flying down the road where Nkosi and Magagula's wife, Nomhlanhla, stood waiting for the kids to return.He felt uneasy and drove down the road to investigate.As he spotted the charcoal-grey Golf, now split in half, Nkosi feared the worst. "I could see the damage to the car. It had been split in two, but there was still that part of me that hoped they would be OK," the devastated father said this week.mini_story_image_hleft1Magagula lost control of the car around a bend and crashed into a tree just 1km from where the children had hopped into the new set of wheels. Police say he was driving at about 180km/h.He died in hospital later. Lefu remains in critical condition. The other three children died on the scene.Speaking to Nkosi at his home in Middelburg this week, the grieving father was forgiving, showing no sign of anger.Neither he nor his wife, Sunrise, had any harsh words about the heart breaking tragedy."It was an accident. It was the excitement of having a new car," he said as he prepared to bury his three children yesterday.He and Magagula were diesel engineers at a nearby mine; they would often look after each other's children.Nkosi said it was his "thing" to pick up takeaways on Friday nights for his family. It was a treat because he worked long hours to save up so their two elder children could attend Pretoria Boys' High School and Pretoria High School for Girls next year. Last Friday was no different. When they stopped at the petrol station to pick up cool drinks, they saw Magagula with his new car.Nkosi said that when he went to investigate the crash he identified the bodies of his children on the scene. He called his wife, telling her: "There's a problem.""She arrived on the scene and kept asking: 'Where are my kids, where are my kids?' I told her: 'You see that car standing there? Our kids are in there,'" he said.Magagula died of his injuries at the Life MidMed Hospital in Middelburg. Lefu is in ICU ."We spoke to his mother. She's not coping at all," said Nkosi."You ask yourself: 'Why must this tragedy happen to us?' Even if it was just one child, it's a tragedy. But losing three, it shuts down a whole family, a whole community," he said.Said Sunrise: "Our lives are going to be so quiet without them."The children were buried in Middelburg yesterday. A separate funeral was held for Magagula.bornmanj@sundaytimes.co.za..