Truck driver is charged over horror crash that killed a mother and her five-year-old son – and left her other son fighting for life in hospital
- Mum and young son tragically killed after horrific collision in regional Victoria
- Another boy 9, was airlifted to hospital, where he remains in a critical condition
- WA truck driver, 59, charged over fatal crash and was remanded in custody
A truck driver has been charged over a horrific crash that claimed the lives of a mother and her five-year-old son.
The fatal collision near Ballarat in regional Victoria also left the woman’s other son, nine, fighting for his life in hospital, while her husband, 37, was taken to hospital.
The 59-year-old driver, from Western Australia, was uninjured and later charged by Victoria Police.
He was charged with two counts of dangerous driving cause death, one count each of failing to give way and causing a collision that placed a person in danger of death and serious injury.
He appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates Court on Monday, where no application for bail was made, and will remain in custody until a committal mention on April 30.
A family of four was torn apart following their car (pictured) was involved in a horror collision
A truck driver has since been charged over the double fatality and was remanded in custody
His prime-mover truck allegedly went through a give-way sign before ploughing into the family’s Toyota RAV4, according to court documents obtained by the Herald Sun.
The car was allegedly rammed off the road and rolled before it came to a stop in a paddock.
The mother and youngest son were pronounced dead at the scene.
Their names are yet to be released as relatives are still being contacted about the tragic news.
The woman’s nine-year-old son was airlifted to hospital in Melbourne.
The boy’s father, 37, was also taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He has since been discharged and travelled to Melbourne to be by his son’s bedside.
The family travelling in the Toyota RAV4 were from the Bendigo suburb of Epsom
Emergency services at the scene where a woman, 37, and boy ,5, were pronounced dead
Police confirmed the injured victims were from the Bendigo suburb of Epsom.
‘This is absolutely devastating. This is a collision that was completely and utterly avoidable,’ Victoria Police’s Sergeant Paul Lineham told Nine News.
‘We’ve got two people dead here – one is a child… these things shouldn’t be happening.’
Eleven people have died on Victoria’s roads since December 13 and takes the state’s road toll for 2019 to 263, well above the 211 killed last year.
Police allege the driver of the truck (pictured) failed to give way at a Kingston intersection