Vic: Police frustrated with Easter deaths as toll climbs to 3

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-2007
Vic: Police frustrated with Easter deaths as toll climbs to 3

By Catherine Best

MELBOURNE, April 6 AAP - Police have blasted Victorian drivers after three people died
and three others were critically injured in a horrific start to Easter on the state's
roads.

Two young men are fighting for their lives after the Commodore in which police believe
they were racing another car at speeds in excess of 160km/h left the road and ploughed
into a tree in Melbourne's south-east early today.

In another accident, a 63-year-old Melbourne man died in a head-on crash at Lake Boga,
just south of Swan Hill, in the state's north, about 10.50am (AEST) today.

His two passengers, women aged 66 and 33, were taken to the Swan Hill Hospital with
non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the other vehicle, a 26-year-old Corowa woman, was trapped in the wreckage
for more than an hour before being airlifted to The Alfred hospital with critical chest
injuries. Her condition was described as stable at the hospital today.

A cyclist and a motorist died in separate accidents yesterday.

One young man in his late teens and another in his early 20s were critically injured
when their Holden Commodore clipped another vehicle on the South Gippsland Freeway at
Hampton Park, careered off the road, and smashed into a tree about 4am (AEST) today.

The impact ripped the car's front wheels off and catapulted the engine several metres
from the wreckage.

Police say the pair were alleged to have been travelling at speeds of more than 160km/h
and may have been racing another vehicle.

Acting Inspector Jeff Smith said he was staggered by the behaviour of drivers, despite
repeated pleas by police for them to take care.

"I just can't understand people who don't take on board what's said at this time of
the year," he told reporters.

"I mean traditionally it's a time of the year where we battle to get the message through
to people that okay, it's a school holiday, don't make it your last holiday.

"It is so frustrating with the amount of press that's gone out, with the amount of
exposure to the road toll that's happened in the last couple of weeks that people just
don't take it on board and don't react to it. It just staggers me sometimes."

A 51-year-old male cyclist died in a collision with a truck on Blackburn Road, in suburban
Clayton about 11.15am yesterday.

Some six hours later, a 31-year-old man died when the car he was driving struck a tree
and rolled on an unsealed road at Invergordon, near Shepparton.

Victoria's Easter toll of three fatalities occurred in less than 48 hours from midnight
on Wednesday, the same toll recorded over the five days of Easter last year.



(EDS: AAP's Easter road toll figures are for the period 0001 April 5 to 2359 April
9. Some states and territories may have different periods.)



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