Four killed in crash between car and truck on highway

Four people have died after a crash between a car and a B-double truck in Victoria’s north-east.

The collision happened at an intersection on the Hume Freeway at Chiltern at 10.30am on Thursday.

All four people inside the sedan were killed.

The 30-year-old driver of the suffered non-life threatening injuries and has been taken to a local hospital.

The cause was still being investigated on Thursday afternoon. Detectives from Victoria’s major collision investigation uUnit were on their way to the scene, which is about three-and-a-half hours from Melbourne.

Victoria Police Acting Inspector Joel Hughes said it was believed the truck was heading north on the Hume Freeway and the car attempted to turn left from Wenkes Road onto the freeway when the crash happened.

“It’s terrible, unfortunately in regional Victoria this year we’ve seen a number of lives lost in our roads and this is another tragic incident,” Acting Inspector Hughes said.

Ron Finemore Transport managing director Mark Parry said the company would assist with the investigation.

“Our thoughts are with the people who were in the vehicle and their extended family, as well as the first responders,” he told the ABC.

“Early indications are the driver was doing everything right, but we won’t know until we see the vision (from the truck’s dash-cam).”

There have been 193 deaths on Victorian roads this year, up from 157 at the same time in 2022. Thursday’s deadly crash was the third to claim multiple lives in the state’s north-east this year.

Five people died in a crash at Strathmerton on the Murray Valley Highway in April. It was the deadliest road accident in Victoria in more than a decade.

Four people died and another was seriously injured in a collision at Pine Lodge, near Shepparton, on January 4.

In addition, four teenagers and a woman in her 30s died when the vehicle in which they were travelling left the highway and hit a tree in Victoria’s remote west in May.

Acting Inspector Hughes said police were still working to identify the Chiltern victims and contact family members.

Traffic has been diverted away from the area. It was not known when roads would reopen.

– with AAP