A FATAL crash south of Bordertown on Sunday afternoon has brought the state’s road toll to three for 2019 and is the second road death in the South East this year.
A car towing a caravan and a truck were travelling south on Naracoorte Road when both vehicles crashed and left the road, killing the car’s 74-year-old female passenger.
The car’s 72-year-old male driver was airlifted to Adelaide with non-life-threatening injuries while the 61-year-old truck driver was treated at the local hospital.
The deadly crash follows last week’s South Australian Police announcement the state’s road toll had reached a record low of 80 in 2018.
However, the Limestone Coast saw a 160pc increase from eight deaths in 2017 to a staggering 13.
The jump was well above the four-year average of five and has prompted emergency services to reiterate the importance of safety on our roads.
Serious injuries in collisions were down in the region from 49 in 2017 to 39, below the four-year average of 45.
Collision casualties overall were below average at 186 compared to 215 in 2017 and the 198 four-year average for the Limestone Coast.
But authorities have vowed to continue their focus to bring the number of people killed on our roads below the 80 fatalities recorded in 2018.
Mount Gambier officer in charge Senior Sergeant Chris King said police had started Operation Riddoch in response to the spate of accidents on the Riddoch Highway.
“That is an operation we have been running for the last few months targeting speed, drink driving and inattention,” he said.
“We also have Operation Safe Holidays which we are actively involved in, which also targets the fatal five.
“There are a series of operations we run throughout the year targeting seat belts, mobile phone use and drink driving and we will continue to target the fatal five and continue to put as many resources on the highway as we can.”
Sgt King urged motorists to exercise caution while behind the wheel.
“We had 13 fatal accidents in 2018 compared to five in 2017,” he said.
“An increase of eight fatalities is still 13 too many because for us, the ultimate goal is to have zero fatalities.
“Not only do accidents affect family and friends, but it also impacts the emergency services that attend those tragic and often avoidable incidents.”
In the Limestone Coast, State Emergency Service units are responsible for road crash rescue, meaning the agency is the often the first response to an accident scene.
Crews administer primary first aid, stabilise both vehicles and casualties and then remove them for further attention if necessary.
SES Mount Gambier district officer Brad Flew said the last 12 months had been a busy period for volunteers in road crash rescue.
Mr Flew said while the agency had a number of mechanisms in place to assist volunteers after seeing confronting scenes, crews were not immune to short and long-term effects.
“Our volunteers will help people during potentially the worst day of their life,” he said.
“There is no doubt some scenes can have lasting effects on the responders and as an agency we do our best to support our volunteers coming back from critical incidents,” he said.
“From the start, there is a fair bit of training that goes in.
“In the city centre, we certainly do not see a lot of high impact, high speed crashes – those incidents usually occur on the highway.
“Occasionally we can absolutely be the first one on the scene, particularly in more rural areas in the upper South East like Bordertown and Keith.”
Mr Flew echoed Sgt King’s comments on a future free of deaths and serious injuries on the road.
He urged motorists to always “err on the side of safety and take it easy on the road”, particularly during peak times.
After Sunday’s accident, Naracoorte Road was blocked to all traffic and vehicles diverted around the scene.
The road remained closed for several hours while major crash investigators examined the scene.
A 32-year-old Seacliff woman died on January 2 when her car collided with a semi-trailer truck on the Dukes Highway just east of Coomandook.
The truck driver was airlifted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital but was not seriously injured.
