A passenger van involved in an horrific head-on collision which killed a two-year-old girl and critically injured five other children was being driven by a 20-year-old disqualified learner driver, police said.
The woman, from Griffith, was driving seven members of her family from their hometown in the NSW Riverina to Sydney Airport, when she collided with a commercial van at Kemps creek, in Sydney’s west, on Tuesday afternoon.
A two-year-old girl died a short time after she was rushed to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
On Facebook, relatives of the little girl posted heartbreaking tributes.
‘Your duty here on earth is done and I know God is in control of everything and that he needed you more than we did,’ a grieving relative said.
A two-year-old girl has died from injuries suffered in a horrific van crash (pictured) which has left eight others in hospital
The front-seat passenger of the family’s van, a 59-year-old man, is fighting for life in hospital while a 23-year-old woman sitting in a middle row of the vehicle suffered two broken legs.
A boy and a girl from the same vehicle, both age 16, also remain in hospital being treated for injuries.
Police said three other children, including a nine-month-old baby, also remain in hospital.
The driver of the second vehicle, a 50-year-old man who was driving a work van, escaped injury.
‘This is a very sad and tragic event,’ NSW Police Inspector Phillip Brooks said.
‘Sadly whilst this matter remains under investigation certainly somebody that shouldn’t be behind the wheel in the first place is a critical factor.’
The matter is still being investigated – with police urging witnesses to come forward.
Emergency crews were forced to work for close to an hour to free a man trapped in the wreckage and up to 12 ambulances and two helicopters attended the scene.
Two vans – one passenger van (pictured) carrying nine people and one commercial van with two occupants – were involved in the collision at Kemps Creek in Sydney’s west
The impact of the crash pushed the passenger van into a roadside ditch, with crews of emergency workers seen dragging a woman from the vehicle.
Among the injured were three children, the two-year-old girl, and two boys aged nine months and three years.
The children were rushed to Westmead hospital but the two-year-old girl died after arrival.
The young boys remain in hospital in a stable condition, but a man taken to Liverpool Hospital with critical injuries is still fighting for his life.
They include a 59-year-old man with critical injuries, a 23-year-old woman with leg injuries, and a 20-year-old woman, a 16-year-old boy and two girls aged 16 and 10 who suffered minor injuries.
The two occupants of the commercial van were not injured in the crash.
Officers from the Metropolitan Crash Investigation Unit are investigating and examined the scene on Tuesday afternoon.
Police urge anyone who witnessed the crash to come forward.