Two couples in their 70s were on a road trip to visit family in Melbourne when they were killed in a horror crash in regional Victoria.
The four people died after their car pulled out in front of a B-double truck on the Hume Highway at the intersection of Wenkes Road in Chiltern about 10.30am on Thursday.
The group from NSW had just stopped for coffee in Chiltern before the crash.
“To have a quadruple (fatal crash), it is just one of the worst outcomes that you could possibly see,” Indigo Shire Council Mayor Sophie Price said.
“The community is just really really shocked, really saddened.”
The truck was travelling northbound towards Sydney when the group approached the freeway from Wenkes Road and pulled out.
“There’s no suggestion of any poor driving prior,” Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Glen Weir said.
“It’s just entering the highway and failing to give way to the truck.”
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The truck driver, a 30-year-old local man, is recovering at home with his family after passing drug and alcohol tests.
“The guy went to work and was just driving his truck and has been confronted with something beyond his control,” Weir said.
Weir announced a forum to tackle Victoria’s climbing road toll in two weeks.
“Like many people, I’m sick of it and you wonder what else do we need to do and say,” he said.
He said it was ”not ideal” for cars to be going from stationary to 110km/h to join a highway.
So far 197 people have lost their lives in Victoria this year, which is 40 more deaths than the same time last year.
