The road toll in the Goulburn Valley last year was easily the worst in recent memory.
Forty-one lives were lost between New Year’s Eve 2022 and the same day the following year from crashes within a 50-minute drive from Shepparton’s central business district.
This equates to a death on the roads every nine days for the year.
The 2023 new year had not even been rung in when two people died in separate crashes.
Longwood’s Jaye Munn died after her motorbike hit a massive pothole and flipped on the Shepparton-Barmah Rd at Kaarimba at 7.21pm on December 31, 2022.
She had been on her way home to Longwood after the Nathalia Show ‘n’ Shine where her motorbike won the best bike at the show award.
Earlier on the same day, another woman died following a two-car collision in Yarroweyah.
Two cars collided on Labuan Rd, near the Fowlers and MacArthur Rds intersection.
The new year was only five days old when the region saw one of its worst fatal crashes.
Four people died in a collision between a car and a ute at the intersection of Cosgrove-Lemnos Rd and Pine Lodge North Rd at Pine Lodge on January 5.
Those who lost their lives were four Indian nationals visiting — Baljinder Singh, Harpel Singh, Bhupinder Sandu and Krishen Singh — who were all passengers in the car.
The car driver, Harinder Singh, 41, of Shepparton, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of dangerous driving causing death.
The case is continuing in the County Court.
January was rounded out with another three crashes, with four people dying within just three days.
On January 20, a man, 82, and a woman, 66, both from Benalla, died after their car crashed into a tree on the Hume Fwy at Creighton’s Creek.
On the same day, Shepparton man Alexander ‘Bill’ Eagle, 69, died after a crash between two vehicles on the corner of Lancaster Rd and Dunbar Rd at Lancaster.
Mr Eagle had been helping at a golf club in Kyabram, shooting rabbits to help keep the pest numbers down, and was on his way home to Shepparton on Dunbar Rd when another ute drove through a stop sign on Lancaster Rd and crashed into him.
Riley Jack Camin, 19, of Kyabram, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury and, in December, was sentenced to two years in a youth detention centre.
On January 23 last year, a Kialla man, 22, died after his vehicle crashed into a tree at the intersection of Archer Rd and Mitchell Rd at Kialla.
Two people died in two crashes in the region in February, with both on the same day — February 7.
A male truck driver aged in his 20s died after a crash between a car and a truck on the corner of the Murray Valley Hwy and Waaia-Bearii Rd at Yalca.
A NSW woman, 74, died after a crash between a car she was a passenger in and a B-double truck at the intersection of Sidebottoms Rd and Katandra Main Rd at Katandra West just before 7.30pm.
March saw two deaths in two separate crashes in the Goulburn Valley.
Katandra’s Clayton Simpson, 19, died after his ute crashed into a tree on Katandra Main Rd on March 5.
On March 17, a crash between a motorcycle and four-wheel drive on Rushworth-Tatura Rd at Waranga Shores claimed the life of a Tasmanian man who was riding the motorbike.
The driver of the four-wheel drive, Harold Watson Rayner, 87, of Nagambie, was charged with dangerous driving causing death.
His matter is continuing in the County Court.
There was just one fatal crash in the region in April, but as far as deaths go, it brought with it the most significant number of fatalities in a single incident for the year and, at the time, was the state’s worst collision in 11 years.
Five people died in a crash between a car, truck and ute at the intersection of the Murray Valley Hwy and Labuan Rd at Strathmerton on April 20.
All five who died were occupants of the ute. They included Cobram’s Debbie Markey, 60, and four international workers, all aged in their 20s — Pin-Yu Wang, Hsin-Yu Chen, Wai Yan Lam and Zih-Yao Chen.
In September, Christopher Dillon Joannidis, 29, pleaded not guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to five counts of driving in a dangerous manner causing death and two counts of reckless conduct endangering life.
The case is continuing in the County Court.
May saw four deaths in four fatal crashes in the region.
The tragedies started on May 4, when a man in his 30s died after a car and truck collided head-on on the Benalla-Tocumwal Rd at Yarroweyah.
This was followed by two deaths in two days — on May 18 and 20.
In the first, a man aged between 18 and 20 died after his van and a car collided on the corner of McEwen and Winter Rds just east of Girgarre.
Just two days later, a 49-year-old Shepparton East man died in a crash on Channel Rd.
He was a passenger in a ute that crashed into a power pole.
On the final day of the month, a 73-year-old Shepparton woman died after the car she was a passenger in and a truck collided on the Midland Hwy at Carag Carag.
French national Clement Thomas Cheri, 25, who lived in Jan Juc at the time of the crash, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.
The matter is still before the courts.
Two deaths in June occurred in two separate crashes.
A woman died in a head-on collision with a truck on the Murray Valley Hwy at Nathalia on June 2.
A 15-year-old Wodonga girl died after a crash between an allegedly stolen car and a truck on the Hume Fwy at Locksley.
She was the passenger in the car.
The car’s driver, a Benalla girl, 14, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.
It was a horror first half of the year that saw 25 people die in just 26 weeks — a sobering number, equivalent to almost one death a week.
In the second 26 weeks of the year, another 16 people lost their lives on the region’s roads.
July saw three deaths come from three crashes.
A 27-year-old man from the Melbourne suburb of Fawkner died in a two-car collision at Undera on July 3.
Police said the man’s car was travelling north on Tatura-Undera Rd, when it and another vehicle travelling west on Mooroopna-Lancaster Rd, collided about 10.40am.
A 59-year-old Shepparton man died in a crash at Gooram on July 9.
He was a passenger in a duel-cab ute that ran off the road and down a 10-metre embankment on a notorious section of Euroa-Mansfield Rd about 10.15pm.
The speed limit for this section of road has recently been dropped from a 100km/h zone to a 60km/h zone to make it safer for motorists after several serious crashes in the area.
In a more unusual set of circumstances, a man in his 40s was found injured on a road in Koonoomoo on July 29.
A passer-by discovered him just before 9pm on the Cobram-Koonoomoo Rd.
The man sadly died at the scene.
August saw two deaths in two crashes on the region’s roads.
Benalla teenager Caleb Puttyfoot, 16, was allegedly hit by a four-wheel drive as he was walking across Bridge St West in Benalla in a hit-and-run.
He died in hospital eight days later.
Dylan Norman, 23, formerly of Benalla and now of Badaginnie, is facing charges over the crash, and the matter is still before the courts.
On August 31, a 32-year-old Shepparton man, who was a pedestrian, died after he was allegedly hit by a car on the Shepparton-Barmah Rd at Shepparton North.
September was the worst month of the year in the region for the number of fatal crashes.
Six people died in six separate crashes throughout the region — an average of one death on the roads every five days.
On September 3, a 44-year-old Tullamarine man died after his car crashed into a tree on the Goulburn Valley Fwy at Arcadia in a single-vehicle crash.
The following day, an 86-year-old Tullamarine woman died in a single-vehicle crash at Locksley.
She was the driver of the car that rolled on Carmodys Rd just before 1pm.
On September 13, a 67-year-old Katunga woman died in a two-vehicle crash on the Goulburn Valley Hwy, near the Victoria St intersection at Tallygaroopna.
She was the driver of one of the vehicles.
September 26 saw one person die after a single-vehicle crash on Bourchiers Rd at Strathmerton, while a 91-year-old Rushworth man lost his life in a crash at Euroa the following day on Euroa-Shepparton Rd.
October saw one fatal crash in the region, but it led to an outpouring of grief throughout the community over the loss of lives of Shepparton five-year-old Savannah Kemp and an unborn baby in a three-vehicle collision at Shepparton on October 20.
The crash occurred at the intersection of Old Dookie Rd and Boundary Rd.
Savannah was the passenger in one of the vehicles, while the unborn baby’s pregnant mother Elodie Aldridge was the driver of another of the vehicles.
Mrs Aldridge was 34 weeks pregnant at the time with her son Remi, but during an emergency C-section at the hospital it was discovered Remi had passed.
A 26-year-old Shepparton woman has been charged with offences including dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury.
Remi is counted in the road toll, and his parents have both a birth and death certificate for him, but because he had not taken a breath, current laws do not allow for his death to be counted as a charge in court.
It is a law his parents Elodie and Andrew Aldridge are now fighting to have changed.
On November 3, an 18-year-old Shepparton woman died in a single-vehicle car crash on the Euroa-Mansfield Rd at Euroa.
In the other fatal crash that month, a 58-year-old Shepparton woman died in a collision at Kyabram on the corner of Edis St and Albion St between a sedan she was in, a truck and a four-wheel drive on November 22.
There was one fatal crash in December.
A 77-year-old Lemnos man received life-threatening injuries and was flown to hospital, but later died, after a crash between two motorcycles on Euroa-Mansfield Rd, at Euroa, about 4.25pm.