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A woman is dead and two others, including a child, have been critically injured after a car lost control and ploughed into them near a playground in Melbourne’s east.
Emergency vehicles raced to the scene on Coleman Road in Wantirna South shortly before 12.30pm on Thursday after a Toyota hatchback driven by an elderly woman, 91, mounted onto a footpath, went through a mesh fence and smashed into a park bench.
A woman aged in her 30s, died at the scene, while a man, also aged in his 30s, was rushed to The Alfred Hospital in critical condition.
A boy, 3, was transported to the Royal Children’s Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The elderly driver was not seriously injured but was taken to hospital for observation and mandatory blood tests.
It’s understood she collided with a street sign and struck the pedestrians walking along the footpath in the same direction from behind.
The car has ended up in a reserve 200m down the road, where the pedestrians were moved down from behind.
‘It’s an absolute tragedy,’ Road Policing Superintendent Justin Goldsmith told reporters.
‘We’re facing a horrific month for road trauma. We’ve had 14 people lose their lives in the last seven days.
One person is dead and two others were rushed to hospital after a car lost control and ploughed into them on Coleman Road in Wantirna South
The Toyota hatchback drove through a fence and smashed into a park bench
The Toyota hatchback drove through a fence and smashed into a park bench
‘We’re thankful that nobody else has been injured.’
Emergency services remain at the scene, where the street has been cordoned off.
An SES tent has been set up near a broken fence, just metres away from a children’s playground.
Crash investigators were seen examining extensive damage to the hatchback near the broken fence.
A flattened street sign was seen further down the street near police tape.
Coleman Road remains closed in both directions between Stud and Lewis roads.
Shocked locals described the scene as ‘quite horrendous’.
‘A car has mounted the footpath and he’s hit two adults and a child at high speed,’ one woman told 3AW.
‘There’s four ambulances there, police galore, all the roads are blocked off.’
Police remain at the scene where a car lost control and ploughed into two adults and a child
An SES tent has been set up metres from a children’s playground
Police are yet to determine whether speed was a factor.
‘But it is a downhill section of road, so if there has been a lack of control to some degree, there is a possibility that the car would have picked up speed as it’s driven further down Coleman Road,’ Superintendent Goldsmith said.
‘We don’t have enough information to say that it’s a high-speed crash or that speed is a contributing factor at this stage.’
Anyone with information, dashcam or CCTV is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Up to a dozen police officers are investigating what happened
