‘Incomprehensible’: Police believe car doing ‘well in excess’ of 100km/h before crash that killed four

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Police believe the driver involved in a crash that claimed the lives of four people in Victoria’s south-west was likely travelling much faster than the speed limit.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said on Monday an examination of the crash reconstruction on the narrow strip of Wannon-Nigretta Falls Road in Bochara, near Hamilton, revealed the car was travelling “well in excess of 100 kilometres an hour”.

The wrecked car is taken from the crash scene.Credit: Nicole Cleary

“To do that speed on that road at that time of day, any time really, is just incomprehensible to me,” Weir told the ABC.

“This is something we’re seeing play out in a number of the serious injury collisions and fatalities that we’ve seen recently – people not driving to the conditions.”

Two male teens, a female teen and a 31-year-old woman were killed when the Toyota they were in smashed into a tree early on Saturday morning. The sole survivor, a 17-year-old girl, was on Sunday afternoon in a critical condition in The Alfred hospital.

The identity of the four victims is yet to be formally released, however on Sunday night, one of the teens – Joshua Elmes – was named by Monivae College in a letter to families.

Nine people have been killed in five separate accidents in Victoria since Friday. A woman became the latest fatality on Monday morning, killed in a smash between a truck and four cars at Darnum in West Gippsland. Her passenger, a teenage girl, was transported to hospital with serious injuries, police said.

The road toll is 132 for this year alone, compared to 96 at the same time last year, making it the worst year for road deaths in Victoria since 2019.

Weir said the number of crashes causing multiple fatalities was a stark difference this year.

“This time last year we’ve had one double fatality for the whole first five months. This year, we’ve had eight double fatalities. We’ve had two quadruple fatalities and, of course, that terrible quintuple fatality up in Strathmerton,” Weir said.

Transport Accident Commission head of road safety Samantha Cockfield said experts had observed international trends, reflected across Australia, that the numbers of people being killed on the road had increased since the pandemic, but did not yet understand why.

“I think not so much complacency, but belief itself; belief that you can do better than you can on the road, that you’re better than other drivers does play into it, and I think, to some degree, [drivers are] taking risks maybe we weren’t doing prior to us being locked down for a number of years,” Cockfield told the ABC.

“We’ve seen that speed has been a major factor in most crashes.”

The tight-knit community of Hamilton began grieving on Sunday. On Monday morning, students of Monivae College left tributes to their schoolmate outside the campus gates.

Wiping away tears, they left bouquets of flowers and photos of their friend.

“Rest easy Josh, you will never be forgotten,” one poster read.

“Never thought it would end this way. You will be missed,” a group of his mates had written on another card.

On Sunday, college principal Jonathan Rowe said in the letter that Joshua’s family had asked that the school community be made aware of his death.

Flowers are laid at Baimbridge College.Credit: Nicole Cleary

“I have spoken to the Elmes family who have asked that this be communicated with the school community,” the principal said in the letter. “Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to Josh’s family, including Josh’s brother, year 7 student Aaron.”

Ruby Cordy, a former school friend of the 17-year-old girl in hospital, said on Sunday the injured teen was lovely and “would always do things for others”.

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