A truck driver died after his truck overturned on the Kings Highway on 15 March 2022. Photo: Karyn Starmer.
Data has shown the majority of the 30 people who died in fatal crashes on the NSW Far South Coast between 2019 and 2022 were killed along the Princes Highway.
Transport for NSW has released maps and crash statistics, including for the Eurobodalla and the Bega Valley, which show the location and number of fatal car crashes.
There were 23 people killed in 22 crashes in the Eurobodalla over this four-year period, while an additional 14 were injured.
In the Bega Valley, seven people were killed in seven crashes, while an extra five were injured.
The maps show there were 15 fatal crashes on the section of the Princes Highway that runs from Benandarah, which is just north of Batemans Bay, south to the NSW/Victorian border.
There were also three fatal crashes on the Kings Highway between Currowan and Nelligen, as well as two on Mount Darragh Road, which is west of Pambula, and two on Imlay Road, which is southwest of Eden.
The majority of crashes only involved one fatality. The only crash in which two people were killed was on the Princes Highway in 2020, when there was a head-on between Bodalla and the Tuross Head turnoff.
A woman died after her car crashed down an embankment at Currowan on 31 January 2021. Picture: South Coast Police District Facebook page.
Six of the fatal crashes were head-ons, while one, which occurred on the Princes Highway just north of Moruya in 2019, occurred when a vehicle struck an animal.
The crashes include a tragic head-on at Corunna on 30 December 2022 which involved three vehicles and closed the highway. A 39-year-old woman died at the scene while five others were taken to hospital.
Earlier that year, a truck driver died on the Kings Highway near Nelligen on 15 March when his vehicle left the road and overturned. A 17-year-old P-plater also died at the scene of a Princes Highway crash on 14 January.
Also, on 31 January 2021, a 68-year-old woman was travelling on Kings Highway at Currowan when she crashed down an embankment. Police said she was airlifted to Canberra Hospital with serious injuries, but died.
This tragedy was compounded when passing motorists ignored a nearby resident who discovered the woman in her crashed car.
Earlier this year, Eurobodalla Shire Council said there were 606 reported crashes on the shire’s roads between 2017 and 2021 which resulted in 592 casualties, 20 of them being fatal.
Loading ...
