Just minutes from home, the devoted couple - with their three-year-old daughter Melissa - were driving to join family and friends already gathered at their Cabramatta house to celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary.
Amid torrential rain on slippery roads about 1.30pm on Saturday tragedy struck.
Police said Mr Hou lost control of his black Holden sedan as he changed lanes while travelling east on Elizabeth Drive at Cecil Park.
The car ploughed into a westbound truck, killing Mr Hou and Melissa instantly.
Ms Chim suffered severe injuries to her head, chest and legs.
Late yesterday, her condition remained critical at Liverpool Hospital.
The 66-year-old truck driver, Luka Ivanovic, also died at the crash scene.
Police said Melissa was travelling unrestrained in the back seat of the sedan.
A friend said that Melissa's child safety seat was left inside a second family vehicle that was in for a service at the time of the crash.
About 30 relatives and friends gathered to mourn in the couple's home yesterday.
They described Mr Hou as a hard-working furniture manufacturer who had run a successful small business with his wife for the past six years.
Ms Chim's sister, Vanny Campbell, spoke through tears to pay tribute to her niece.
"She was so cute. She was just lovely," Ms Campbell said.
"She was such a good girl."
Ms Campbell said the couple's three other children - Jamie, 10, Linda, 13, and Natasha, 16 - would be cared for by relatives, including their grandmother, who the family hope to bring out from Cambodia.
"I can't believe it's happened like this," she said.
Friend Nikki Siv, 36, described Mr Hou and Ms Chim as "inseparable".
Police are also investigating after four teenagers suffered serious injuries - including broken bones, internal organ damage and spinal injuries - when their Ford utility rolled in a paddock near Wagga Wagga on Saturday.
And officers are appealing for help to locate a man who fled after crashing a small, white car - possibly a Toyota Corolla - into two female cyclists at Kensington yesterday.
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