'What have you done?' family's anguish for man killed in Port Kembla crash

He'd repeatedly called council and police to complain about drivers "gunning it" as they came off the nearby Shellharbour Road roundabout and hit this stretch of inclined roadway. He'd proposed speed bumps, but nothing ever changed.

He went to yell a warning - "watch out" - as his father was unloading a car trailer on the roadside Saturday afternoon. But there wasn't time for the words to leave his mouth.

Mark Spackman, 62-year-old grandfather of three, South Coast Clydesdale breeder, safe haven provider, workhorse, builder, purveyor of a thousand wise sayings, father of two and "adoptive" father to another - had his leg cut clean from his body as he was caught between the back of the trailer and the Suzuki.

His son was watching as he flew through the air. His wife of 41 years, Rhonda, had been at his side seconds earlier. Now she held him in her arms on the road. She would later tell her daughter-in-law that her beloved's eyes looked apologetic before he slipped away.

Read more: Drivers 'gunning it' down Cowper Street for years before fatal crash, son says

The crash occurred just after 3.15pm, about 100m east of the Shellharbour Road roundabout.

The Suzuki driver, a 17-year-old red p-plater from Unanderra, was reported to have suffered serious injuries, but police have confirmed she was well enough to later attend Lake Illawarra Police Station. No charges have yet been laid.

After speaking with neighbours, the Spackmans believe the girl had a puppy in the front seats with her when she crashed.

Phillip found himself face-to-face with the girl in the moments after impact, as he screamed for an ambulance and an off-duty nurse came to render first aid.

"She looked me straight in the face. I said, 'what have you done? What have you done to my father?" he told the Mercury.

Mark Spackman seldom told his children that he loved them, or that they made him proud. He told other people this - but was simply "an emotional cripple at times", Phillip said. And yet, for him, "family was number one".

He met his future wife at a pool party when she was 15 and he was 17.

As their romance bloomed, he would drive from Sydney to Melbourne to see her. Their marriage, when she was 19 and he was 21, was in defiance of Rhonda's father, an army man.

"He wanted her to marry an army man," Phillip said.

"He thought dad was never good enough for my mum. But she married him, just a plain old tradesman.

She loved his sense of humour. He was always trying to make people laugh. He always went out of his way to make her feel special. She never wanted for anything."

Read more: Missing fisherman found dead after boat capsizes in Port Kembla

Using skills handed down from his own father, Mark built the couple's home to his wife's specifications, first at Cambewarra then and their present-day home in Pyree, where the couple bred Clydesdales.

"He always used to tell me he just loved her from the moment he saw her," Phillip said.

"From the moment he saw her, there was no coming back. When he would talk about my mum he would just disappear into his own world, then stop mid-sentence, and you'd have to prompt him to talk again."

Over the years, the couple took in numerous people living in difficult circumstances, including a young woman who became like an adopted daughter. They gave them food, sometimes a home and "a go".

"Mum just always happened to stumble across these people. Dad would say, 'grab their shit, tell them to come in'. I remember he picked up stuff from their houses for them. He had confrontations with [relatives] who were nasty and rough.

"He'd say, 'don't fight unless it's for something right. Something that was honourable."

"My granddad was the same - respect and morals."

In 2014 interview, Mark told the South Coast Register his Clydesdales were "gentle giants"

"There's something about a newborn. It's something you can't put in words," he said.

In a later interview he issued an open invitation for curious passers-by to come into the property and pat the horses rather than reach out from the road as it was "a bit of a dangerous spot to pull over". He said kindness was the key to his success with the Clydesdales.

"Break them in with kindness and handle them as foals," he said.

He ran a trucking business and later his own civil construction company - Cambewarra Backhoes - in the 1980s and 90s.

His son described him as "self-taught and very old school" with his building and repair skills.

"He took what my grandfather gave him and made it his own. Everything I know today came from my dad. Up until literally this happened I was ringing him up for advice. Who do I ring now?".

Tahlia Spackman described her father-in law as "incredible" and "larger than life"

"He was the kind of person that, if you'd broken down and you were stuck on the side of the road at two in the morning you could call on him and he would come and pick you up. He was always there for you. He would go out of his way to help."

"It still feels like we're going to go to the farm and see him working on his mowers, working on his machines.

"He was getting into retirement. He was working less and less and just taking time for himself. He and Rhonda were going to go traveling at the end of this year. They were finally going to go travelling and it's just never going to happen now."