Fifteen people have lost their lives in accidents on Australian roads over the Easter long weekend following the death of a man in a single-car rollover in Victoria.
The driver in the latest tragedy, which occurred at an intersection in Wangaratta in the state’s northeast late on Sunday, is under police guard in hospital with suspected non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say one of his three male passengers died after the car overturned and ploughed into a paddock. The other two were airlifted to hospitals in Melbourne with critical injuries.
They included four adults killed in a crash in the New South Wales Southern Tablelands and a woman in Tasmania who was a passenger in a sedan.
A 26-year-old woman has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving after her Toyota Camry collided with a white MG near Copping, east of Hobart.Two people were also killed in separate incidents within 24 hours in the Northern Territory, including a man involved in a collision between a motorbike and quad bike on the Finke Track near Alice Springs.
The 27-year-old quad bike rider died at the scene, while the 24-year-old male motorbike rider has been flown interstate for treatment.
Another man died in the early hours of Saturday in a single-car rollover involving four adults near Hermannsburg, west of the Alice.
There were three more fatal accidents in regional areas of Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania on Easter Sunday, one of which involved a 16-year-old boy.
The teenager was killed early on Sunday when a Honda station wagon slammed into a tree about 75km south of Adelaide.
Early investigations into the Tasmanian crash indicate a 29-year-old woman lost control of a Mitsubishi Magna on the East Tamar Highway at Bell Bay on Sunday morning.
A 59-year-old man died in a fatal crash two hours south of Perth when a Mitsubishi Pajero left the Bussell Highway and struck a tree.
On Monday, one person died, and another two were critically injured in a head-on crash south of Townsville.
Authorities arrived at Goodsell Rd, Cungulla, after a sedan veered onto the other side of the road and collided with a Toyota 4WD.
The driver of the sedan died on impact, with the passengers in the 4WD taken to hospital.
