Emergency workers at a fatal crash on Richmond Rd, Marsden Park / Pic: Bill Hearne Source: The Daily Telegraph
FIVE people, including a husband and wife, are dead and a teenage boy is fighting for his life after a spate of fatal accidents yesterday pushed the state's holiday road toll from two to seven.
Two of the accidents, which claimed three lives, happened less than 10 minutes apart.
A 27-year-old man from Canley Vale died when his Ford Falcon and a Magna collided at an intersection in Marsden Park in Sydney's west just before 6.50am.
Five minutes later at 6.55am a couple were killed when the Nissan Patrol they were passengers in crashed on the Hume Highway at Holbrook in the state's southwest.
A 70-year-old man sitting in the front passenger seat and his 70-year-old wife in the back seat, both Fijian nationals, died at the scene. A 14-year-old boy suffered head injuries and was flown to a Canberra hospital in a critical condition. A 67-year-old woman flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital with possible spinal injuries is in a serious but stable condition.
The driver, a 44-year-old man, his 45-year-old wife and her 40-year-old sister escaped with minor injuries. The crash survivors are from Chisholm in the ACT and all are members of the same family.
About 1.45pm a car had hit a tree in Doughertys Junction Rd at Hargraves, near Mudgee, in the state's central west.The male driver was able to walk to a nearby property to raise an alert, but his male passenger was found dead inside the vehicle.
Less than an hour later, at 2.30pm, a man was driving east along Abernethy Rd, Abernethy, in the Hunter, when it appears his sedan left the road and struck a tree, killing the driver.
In another incident a man is clinging to life after crashing his motorcycle while allegedly attempting to avoid arrest by police.
Police said they attempted to pull the rider over on Masonite Rd, Heatherbrae, just north of Newcastle, at 11.30am when the accident happened. He is in John Hunter Hospital with little chance of survival.
Despite the fatalities, the road toll for the holiday period is lower than last year's but police said there had been an increase in the number of people injured in traffic accidents.
"While we've had fewer fatalities compared with the same period last year, we've seen a significant rise in the number of people injured on our roads. This is a pattern seen during poor driving conditions," Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, head of the NSW Highway Patrol, said. "Based on our most recent statistics, 246 people have been injured in 760 crashes since Friday, compared with 640 people injured in 198 crashes during the comparable period of Operation Safe Arrival last year.
"Police will continue to target dangerous and irresponsible driver behaviour across the state during Operation Safe Arrival.
"In the first five days of the operation, police have conducted 162,597 breath tests with 288 charges being laid."
Operation Safe Arrival began last Friday and concludes at 11.59pm on Friday week, its targets including speeding, drink-driving, seatbelt and other traffic offences.
Double demerit points will remain in place until 11.59pm on Tuesday for speeding, seatbelt and helmet offences.
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