Five people are dead after a horrific crash near Strathmerton on Thursday in the state’s worst fatal collision in 11 years.
Police said a white Mercedes travelling north on Labuan Rd failed to give way while turning onto the Murray Valley Hwy at about 2.30pm, causing a Nissan Navara to spin out of control and collide with an oncoming B-double.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner of Road Policing Glenn Weir said the 29-year-old driver of the Mercedes had been pulled over minutes earlier by police on Labuan Rd and charged with speeding.
He said the driver, who is from Melbourne, had been recorded driving at 118km/h in a 100km/h zone less than two kilometres from the site of the crash.
Asst Comm Weir said it was the worst fatal collision in the state in 11 years, and was emotional when talking about the “catastrophic” scene which faced emergency service workers and the public.
The five people in the Navara were “killed instantly”, Asst Comm Weir said, and disaster victim identification workers had to be called in to determine how many people were involved in the crash.
He said the driver was believed to be a local, a 60-year-old woman, while a man and three women were believed to be workers from overseas who were employed by the 60-year-old woman.
Asst Comm Weir said the truck driver was “devastated”.
“He was doing the right thing, working, in a split second his life has changed as well,” he said.
“From his perspective I can only imagine the horror. There’s nothing he could have done.”
Police believe they had finished work for the day and the 60-year-old was driving the workers back home.
He said he believed charges would be laid against the 29-year-old Mercedes driver.
Two people, the Mercedes driver and his passenger, a 20-year-old woman, were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police and investigators are still at the scene of the crash.
Police said the incident occurred at the same intersection as a fatal crash involving a police car in February 2022 where one person was killed and two police officers were seriously injured.
A woman died in a crash on Labuan Rd on December 31, 2022.
Asst Comm Weir said the intersection was known as a dangerous one, and said police would be investigating ways to make it safer.
“The ripple effect of this one incident will remain for a long time,” he said.
“It has had and will have a significant impact on the people who attended the scene.
“Strathmerton is a small community where everyone knows everyone and it will be devastating for them.”