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Five traffic fatalities in Central West in five days

Mar 27, 2019

CENTRAL WEST, NSW, Australia – It has been a bitter few days in the Central West these past few days with several deaths ocurring on roads in the region.

The latest fatality came on Wednesday afternoon in Bathurst. A 33-year old man was struck by a truck in the city’s CBD at the intersection of William and  Durham streets around 12:10pm.

Details of another fatal incident came to light earlier on Wednesday. Between Sunday night and the early hours of Monday morning a man was killed after his Toyota Landcruiser left the road and hit a tree.

The man, 53, was driving along Lansdale Road, Tottenham, about 88km south of Nyngan some time between 9:30pm Sunday night, and 5:30am Monday morning. Officers from Central West Police District have been unable to pinpoint the time of the crash. Emergency services were alerted to it at 5:30am on Monday. When they arrived the man had already died.

The carnage on Central West roads began on Saturday night when a man was killed in a single-vehicle truck crash around 5:20pm on the Mid-Western Highway, about 30km west of Grenfell, and 162 kilometres southwest of Bathurst. It is understood the truck, which was carrying a load of gyprock, hit a tree and burst into flames.

The driver and only person in the truck, a 43-year-old man from Kariong on the NSW Central Coast, died at the scene.

Forty minutes later on Saturday night a man in his 80s was injured in a collision between a truck and a Mitsubishi SUV when they collided on the Newell Highway, 10 kilometres south of Gilgandra, and 64 kilometres north of Dubbo, at around 6:00pm Saturday night. 

The driver and a female passenger, also in her 80s, were treated at the scene before the man was taken to Gilgandra Hospital. The woman was transported to Dubbo Hospital.

The truck driver, a 59-year-old man from Benalla, Victoria, who was uninjured, was taken to Gilgandra Hospital for mandatory testing.

Around 8:45pm police were notified that the man admitted to Gilgandra Hospital had died.

Then the following day, a motorcyclist was killed after he fell from his bike at Meadow Flat in the City of Lithgow.

The incident occurred just after 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon.

Emergency services were called to the Great Western Highway at Meadow Flat, about 20 kilometres from the main Lithgow township, and around forty kilometres from Bathurst.

Police from Chifley Police District attended and found the 59-year-old man who was riding the bike had died at the scene.

Sunday’s was the third fatality on Central West roads in two days, and the third death of a motorcyclist on New South Wales roads in 3 days.

Flash forward to Wednesday: The number of deaths on Central West roads is now five in 5 days.

With the death of another motorcylist on Monday night in Sydney’s southwest at Denham Court; and another on Tuesday afternoon in Manning/Great Lakes; and yet another in Moree on Wednesday morning, the number of motorcyclists killed on New South Wales roads in the past five days now stands at six. Another motor bike rider died on Friday night at Whittingham, which means 7 motorcylists have now been killed on New South Wales roads in six days.

For those that may think these are young bike riders, perhaps a bit reckless, and inexperienced, they should think again. The ages of the bike riders killed were Meadow Flat 59, Singleton 44, Moree 57, Manning/Great Lakes 73, Denham Court 39, and Whittingham 50.

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