The sole survivor of a horrific crash that killed four grandmothers earlier this month has been charged over their deaths.
Claudia Jackson, Dianne Barr, Tess Ely and Elaine Middleton were on their way home from line dancing when their car was slammed into in rural Victoria on May 5.
The four women died at the scene – at the intersection of Bains and Ararat-St Arnaud roads in Navarre in the state’s Northern Grampians region.
On Thursday, Victoria Police announced that Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives had charged a woman in relation to the quadruple fatal collision.
Elaine Middleton (left) and Claudia Jackson (right) were among the four killed in the crash
‘The 64-year-old Stawell woman driving the other vehicle has been charged with four counts of culpable driving causing death,’ a police statement said
She was bailed to appear in Ballarat Magistrates Court on Friday.
Police will allege the woman had failed to see the stop sign and drove right across the intersection.
One of the women killed in the crash was also farewelled on Thursday.
‘The funeral for Dianne Barr was held today in Heywood at the Uniting Church, with more than 200 people attending, including police and Emergency services members,’ one man commented on the ABC Ballarat Facebook page.
‘The president of the Hamilton Boot Scooting Club read the eulogy while a specially written poem & reading were given by her sons. The Hamilton Boot Scooting club formed a guard of honour at the completion of the service.’
Two of the four friends killed when their car was T-boned on the isolated road held hands as they died from internal injuries.
They were among eight deaths within the space of 24 hours on Victorian roads.
The intersection had no history of significant crashes prior to the tragedy.
‘Seeing that scene, it was horrific…four women who looked like they were just asleep, so they’ve died from internal injuries,’ Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer said at the time.
‘The sight of the driver holding the passenger’s hand as she passed will haunt me for some time. The elderly women had no chance whatsoever, there was no opportunity to take evasive action.’
Mr Fryer added that the four women had been valued members within the community for decades.
‘It is with a heavy heart we must tell you that four of our linedancing family senselessly and tragically lost their lives after dancing with us at St Arnaud on Saturday,’ the Cactus Moons Linedancing group posted on Facebook at the time.
‘This is truly heartbreaking for everyone and we extend our sympathy to their loved ones and to their friends where they dance at Hamilton.’
Tess Ely was also killed after the collision between the Kia and another vehicle
Dianne Barr, from Heywood, was also killed in the tragic smash in rural Victoria
Two of the four friends killed when their white Kia Rio (pictured) was T-boned on an isolated Victorian road held hands as they died from internal injuries
Dianne Barr’s husband Gavin Barr said he was ‘lost for words’ at his loss and described his late partner as a ‘happy go lucky lady’, the Herald Sun reported.
The couple were due to celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary the following week.
He said Ms Barr ‘wouldn’t have an enemy in the town’ and ‘loved her dancing’.
‘I encouraged her to go out and meet people so she could have a social life,’ he said.
The couple, who shared two sons and two granddaughters, ran a busy small parts business which allowed them to work side-by-side 24/7.
Four people from a nearby house came out to help before emergency services arrived.
The women were travelling down a clear stretch of road when the other car (right) came straight through an intersection in an 80km/h zone
Debborah Standfield watched from her veranda as the crash unfolded in ‘slow motion’ and the small white car landed in her front yard.
‘I could see both cars getting closer, the other driver wasn’t slowing down towards the stop sign and she was travelling at high speed — I thought ‘oh God, here’s a crash about to happen’ ,’ she told the Herald Sun.
‘It went into slow motion, as it happened, I saw the white car just fly through the air and land in our front yard. It was just chaos, it was horrible.’
Her husband Michael, a former police officer, described the incident as a ‘very sad state of affairs’.
‘I was on the scene within 10 seconds and there were three already gone by that stage in the one car and the driver was in a very sad state, she didn’t last long,’ he told the publication.
Debborah Standfield watched from her veranda as the crash unfolded in ‘slow motion’ and the small white car (left) landed in her front yard (pictured)
The crash took place near the intersection of Bains and Ararat-St Arnaud roads (pictured)
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