'Nobody knows what they went through'. Three children survive the crash that killed their parents.

After spending Christmas Eve with family in Northam in WA, Cindy Braddock, 25, and Jake Day, 28, were just a few kilometres from their Kondinin home when their four-wheel drive veered off the road, killing them both. 

Their three children, aged between five and two months old, miraculously survived the crash. They had to wait over two days before being found alive next to the wreckage on the Corrigin-Kondinin Road in WA's Wheatbelt region.

Incredibly, while desperate family and friends joined police to look for their missing loved ones, the five-year-old girl may have saved her younger brother's life by helping him out of his car seat.

Watch the 7News report on the crash. Story continues below.

Mr Day's cousin Michael Read spoke to reporters outside of the Perth Children's Hospital where the three children were reportedly dehydrated but otherwise stable.

"What I've gathered is the five-year-old became unstuck in the vehicle, and she then got the one-year-old out of the car seat, then they were stuck in the car for the 55 hours in 30-degree heat," Mr Read said.

"It would have been hard for the three children to be in the car for that whole time. Nobody knows what they went through. And if it wasn't for the five-year-old undoing the buckle of the one-year-old's car seat, he wouldn't be with us today.

"But all the kids are doing fine. They should be out within the next couple of days."

Mr Read said the whole family were just devastated by what happened and are still coming to terms with what happens next.

"It is hard, having three kids now growing up with nobody. Apart from other family members. We're going bit by bit at the moment."

The remote location of the crash combined with trees concealing the wreckage, made it difficult for police and family members to locate the car and three surviving children. 

Mr Day's stepfather Richard Parker said he was just 10km from the site when thankfully another family member found them. He praised the five-year-old's courageous actions and thanked the professionals and volunteers who tried to help find the family.

"She's a legend, she always has been... she's a strong little girl," he told The West. "I appreciate the people who were out there helping us look for them. We'll get through it, we've just got to plod along."

Jake Day and Cindy Braddock. Image: Facebook.

Helen Whitbread, a family friend and resident of Kondinin said the town will struggle to recover from such a tragedy.

"It's never going to be the same without them," Ms Whitbread told Nine News. "Beautiful kids. Cindy did an awesome job with her babies and now they're not going to have a mum."

The family of five reportedly spent Christmas Eve with Mr Day's mother in Northam before deciding to drive home to Kondinin for Christmas Day. The last known sighting of the family was at 1.11am on Christmas Day when they stopped to refuel their car.

Nathan O'Donnell who works at a petrol station in Northam, told the ABC that he may have been the last person to speak to the family.

"They then got out, put fuel in, then they came in, they went to the toilet, they came and bought drinks and snacks and stuff for the road," Mr O'Donnell said.

"They looked very exhausted. He told me he was heading to Kondinin and that it was a couple of hours' drive. He looked exhausted... he didn't buy a coffee. Then he left, I told him good luck with the long drive. Unfortunately, he never made it."

Mr Day's cousin Michael Read had some advice for drivers, especially at this time of year.

"Know what your body limit is, don't drive tired," he told the ABC. "If you're going to want to be somewhere, stay the night at a family's place. It's not worth it."

With devastated locals laying tributes to the family next to scattered debris from the car including a baby's bottle and various toys, there have been calls to upgrade the roads in this remote region.

"Out of all the highways leading out of Perth, it is probably in the worst shape," Shire of Kondinin councillor Bruce Browning said in an interview with ABC news.

"My heart goes out to the volunteers who had to go out to this accident and find those children and the deceased like that so I take my hat off to them and to the police. We are just horrified that children could be so close to the highway and not found for so long."

A sign left at the site of the Christmas Day crash. Image: ABC News.

Cam Dumesny of the Western Roads Federation told Nine News that it was time to 'do better'.

"We've got to improve our road safety in Australia," he said. "Too many families are being impacted. It is tragic and we need to do better." 

The three orphaned children at the centre of this story continue to recover well at Perth Children's Hospital with latest reports suggesting they will return home soon.

A GoFundMe page has raised over $40,000 in the wake of the tragedy that, according to the page admins Casey Guyer and Kailee Wallace, "will help the family of Jake and Cindy with the costs of funerals and the remaining will go to the children to help with any medical and life expenses."

Feature Image: Facebook.