Baby among five dead in car crushed by truck
FIVE family members, including a three-month-old baby, have been killed in a horrific crash in what the state's most senior traffic officer has called the worst day in 15 years on NSW roads.
The 23-year-old mother tried to shelter her child as a truck travelling about 100km/h crushed their Toyota Camry at about 8.20am yesterday morning on Picton Road near Wilton.
Her husband and two women in their 40s, believed to be the man's sisters, were also killed when their car veered into the path of a water tanker.
The family from Pendle Hill had recently settled in Australia from Afghanistan. They were travelling to Wollongong for a day trip, and relatives in a separate vehicle saw the tragedy unfold.
Hours later, a crash near Grafton claimed the lives of two women while three passengers, believed to be their teenage daughters, suffered minor injuries. Also yesterday, a motorcyclist collided with a car at high speed near Kempsey, and had to have an arm and a leg amputated.
Yesterday's seven deaths takes this year's road toll to 436 - almost 120 more than last year's toll. The three-year average for road deaths is 371.
The state's most senior traffic officer, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, said it had been a ''horrific day … It's just a shocking, shocking day, and I can't remember a day as bad as this in 15 years.''.
An Ambulance NSW paramedic, David Morris, described the Wilton crash as ''one of those things you never want to turn up to''. The car was pushed about 200 metres along the road after being struck, and was so mangled that it took the police hours to determine how many people were inside. Emergency services workers had to cut off the roof to retrieve the bodies, revealing the Pendle Hill family and the young child in a capsule.
''It's something that no humans should have to see. The woman was trying to shelter her baby by putting her hands over the top the baby,'' Mr Hartley said. He said it was believed the family's car went out of control after it clipped another vehicle travelling in the same direction on a dual carriageway. ''Somehow they have touched each other … and the vehicle has left the roadway, then spun back across the road and into the path of the oncoming truck,'' he said.
Picton Road, between the F6 and the Hume Highway, has claimed 21 lives since 2000.
The 56-year-old driver of the tanker in the Picton Road crash, from Wilton, was uninjured.
Source: Baby among five dead in car crushed by truck
The 23-year-old mother tried to shelter her child as a truck travelling about 100km/h crushed their Toyota Camry at about 8.20am yesterday morning on Picton Road near Wilton.
Her husband and two women in their 40s, believed to be the man's sisters, were also killed when their car veered into the path of a water tanker.
The family from Pendle Hill had recently settled in Australia from Afghanistan. They were travelling to Wollongong for a day trip, and relatives in a separate vehicle saw the tragedy unfold.
Hours later, a crash near Grafton claimed the lives of two women while three passengers, believed to be their teenage daughters, suffered minor injuries. Also yesterday, a motorcyclist collided with a car at high speed near Kempsey, and had to have an arm and a leg amputated.
Yesterday's seven deaths takes this year's road toll to 436 - almost 120 more than last year's toll. The three-year average for road deaths is 371.
The state's most senior traffic officer, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, said it had been a ''horrific day … It's just a shocking, shocking day, and I can't remember a day as bad as this in 15 years.''.
An Ambulance NSW paramedic, David Morris, described the Wilton crash as ''one of those things you never want to turn up to''. The car was pushed about 200 metres along the road after being struck, and was so mangled that it took the police hours to determine how many people were inside. Emergency services workers had to cut off the roof to retrieve the bodies, revealing the Pendle Hill family and the young child in a capsule.
''It's something that no humans should have to see. The woman was trying to shelter her baby by putting her hands over the top the baby,'' Mr Hartley said. He said it was believed the family's car went out of control after it clipped another vehicle travelling in the same direction on a dual carriageway. ''Somehow they have touched each other … and the vehicle has left the roadway, then spun back across the road and into the path of the oncoming truck,'' he said.
Picton Road, between the F6 and the Hume Highway, has claimed 21 lives since 2000.
The 56-year-old driver of the tanker in the Picton Road crash, from Wilton, was uninjured.
Source: Baby among five dead in car crushed by truck
