Her baby, Austin, was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital. He miraculously sustained only minor scratches, Mr Tonkin said.
Mr Tonkin said his daughter was one of the most special people he knew and that she had just embarked on her journey of motherhood.
"She was a beautiful girl, just one of those people who walked into a room and lit it up," he said.
"If she happened to be on the road a minute before or a minute after, it wouldn't have happened."
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Mr Tonkin said police arrived at his home last night to inform he and his wife of what had occurred.
"They said we need to speak to both of you and we sat down and they just told us straight out," he said.
"We have been crying for 24 hours since."
Mr Tonkin said his daughter's partner went to be by baby Austin's side in hospital on Friday night.
A close friend of Ms Tonkin, who did not want to be named, said she had no words to describe her grief at the loss of the "caring" and "incredible" woman.
"Words are completely failing me at the moment. All I have are tears," she said.
"The idea of summing up Sarah's life in a quote feels like an impossible task because she was so much more than a handful of words."
Police say they believe a white B-double was travelling in the opposite direction on Geelong-Bacchus March Road and may have flicked the tow bar part up into Ms Tonkin's windscreen.
Detective Acting Sergeant Philip Frith, from the Major Collision Investigation Unit, said the tow bar component was believed to have fallen from a vehicle shortly before it was struck by the truck.
"The tongue of the tow bar has come loose from a vehicle and was lying on the road," he said.
"It's quite a substantial piece of metal, in excess of 10 kilograms, so we don't think it was lying there long. Had a car hit it, it would have done significant damage, so we think somebody would've stopped to pick it up."
Detective Acting Sergeant Frith said police wanted to speak to the truck driver.
"From our point of view, at the moment, there's no offence to speak of. We're simply keen to speak with the driver to gain a better understanding of what happened."
Ms Tonkin's death comes after a double fatal on the same stretch of road, 70 kilometres west of Melbourne, on October 26.
The notorious road has seen increased traffic as the population expands in Melbourne's west, and is particularly busy over the summer period.
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Ten people were killed on the road between 2012 and 2017, prompting the government to fast-track a $50 million initiative to install wire rope barriers on its centre and sides.
Those works were supposed to be finished by the end of the year, but have been delayed. Footage from Nine News shows no barriers at the scene of Friday's crash.
Regional Roads Victoria said it was still too early to determine if planned safety barriers would have prevented Friday's crash, but said it would work closely with police to determine the cause of the accident.
It was one of two fatal crashes within minutes on Friday afternoon, and just hours after Victoria Police launched its Christmas road-safety blitz.
A man believed to be in his 60s crashed into a tree along the Forrest-Apollo Bay Road at Tanybryn, about 20 kilometres north of Apollo Bay. He died on the way to hospital.
On Saturday morning, a 29-year-old man from Tasmania died after his car collided with a truck in Campbellfield.
Paul is a reporter for The Age.
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