KOTA BARU: Mohamad Sanuzi Mohd Nawi had not seen his daughter in a year after divorcing her mother.

Then came the sad news that the 3-year-old was one of four killed in a three-vehicle road crash on the East-West Highway yesterday.

Safiyya Haura was killed along with her mother, Tuan Shazrin Tuan Mud, 40, and two other people in a crash at Km38.5 of the highway near Tasik Banding, Gerik, Perak, yesterday afternoon.

Sanuzi, 33, said he received a phone call from Taiping Hospital at 8pm on the day of the incident, informing him that his daughter and former wife had died.

"I was numb and unable to think of anything when I received the news, because (until then) I had been eagerly waiting for the moment I would meet Safiyya after a year of not seeing her, as she was in the care of my former wife, who lived in Perak.