Car runs over 12 teenagers, kills 5! somewhere near Mildura.

[svo347]

Originally Posted by Yummy Mummy

That's shocking. That poor man has to live with that on his conscience for the rest of his life.

so he bloody well should... he took off into a vineyard shortly afterwards....

[svo347]

Originally Posted by flappist

Ah yes lets see, a large group of ИИИИed young ADULTS some of who you have just killed. The others would be in a sensible stable state of mind wouldn't they?
Do you think they might have threatened him? Do you think he might have been is shock? Maybe he ran for his life? Or maybe he is just a homicidal psychopath?

None of us were there and only know what we have read and that was written by journalists (who NEVER get it wrong or spice it up) based on statements by the driver, a group of ИИИИed teenagers (and as we all know teenagers NEVER fib) and a lot of guesswork.

Has anyone here ever hit a cow, skippy, wombat etc.?

Wait until the coroner's inquest before assigning guilt......

Where did it say he was being threatened?

[TURBOTAXI]

Originally Posted by flappist

Ah yes lets see, a large group of ИИИИed young ADULTS some of who you have just killed. The others would be in a sensible stable state of mind wouldn't they?
Do you think they might have threatened him? Do you think he might have been is shock? Maybe he ran for his life? Or maybe he is just a homicidal psychopath?

None of us were there and only know what we have read and that was written by journalists (who NEVER get it wrong or spice it up) based on statements by the driver, a group of ИИИИed teenagers (and as we all know teenagers NEVER fib) and a lot of guesswork.

Has anyone here ever hit a cow, skippy, wombat etc.?

Wait until the coroner's inquest before assigning guilt......

I agree - the media is a totally reliable source of information - NOT

Lets wait and see what the full story is.

[aimzes]

just read this on ABC news;

A group of 13 teenagers had left a party and was standing off the side of the road waiting for a taxi when a car veered to the wrong side and ploughed into the group.

i was under the impression that they were actually on the road.



bloody e series owners...

[AUIII XR8 MAN]

It sad to read that such thing has happen. I feel sorry for all that was affected by this accident. But let just wait for all the facts to come out before judging.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by svo347

Where did it say he was being threatened?

Where did it say he wasn't?
Where did it say he was wearing a pink shirt?
Where did it say he was not wearing a pink shirt?
Where did it say he was not a giraffe?

Do you believe EVERYTHING you read in the newspaper?
Have you ever been in car accident? Have you ever been in shock?
Have you ever had your life threatened?
Do you think that the friends of the victims would tell the police something like:
"He was trying to help but we started to attack him so he ran away" or would they just mention the "ran away" bit?

You and I have something in common, NEITHER OF US WERE THERE, so neither of us actually know what happened, just what we have been told.

You seem quick to villify and you may be right to do so, but then you may not too.
Do you think the driver deserves the at least some presumption of innocence until proven guilty?

[Blue Oval Mopar Man]

Have to agree with you there Flappist! I will wait till the facts come out about what happened to reveal my thoughts . I am talking about investigated facts , not the kind of sensationalistic facts that a so called journalist gets third hand and tries to spice it up a little !

And your are right about not being there , How the hell do we know what realy happened? All we know is there is a group of kids dead and injured ( who may or may not be partly or fully at fault) and they were hit by a car driven by a person (who may or not be partly or fully at fault ) !!!!

[Dave_au]

Apparently he left two kids in the back of the vehicle as he ran away. The police have now charged him.

Originally Posted by jabba

Good point Flappist. I know if I was the driver and depending on the situation I would not be hanging around if there were 100 drunken angry teenagers that were threatening me.

I think after the initial impact pretty much everyone would have been in shock. The fact that he fled, and then was arrested by the Police some distance away at a time later, would tend to give bias towards a guilty conscious.

Really suprised by some of the reactions here, I thought most people would have been outraged at the driver, but it seems may of you are having a go at the kids for being on the road. Looking at the statistics involved (late night, saturday night, country area), it is quite probable that speed and alchohol was involved. Jumping to conclusions for sure, I'm just saying that from a statistics point of view.

[Dave_au]

Found this on SMH:

Originally Posted by SMH

Five teens killed: man charged

February 19, 2006 - 5:02PM
Page 1 of 2
AdvertisementAdvertisement

A 34-year-old man has been charged over the deaths of five teenagers, who were hit by a car while they were walking on a roadside in far north-western Victoria.

Eight other young people were injured, two critically.

The car careened into the group of 13 partygoers in Myall Road at Cardross, near Mildura, about 9.50pm yesterday.

The driver of the car allegedly left the scene of the accident.

Early this morning, police arrested a man at a house in nearby Red Cliffs and questioned him over the crash.

Thomas Towle, 34, was charged this afternoon with five counts of culpable driving, five counts of negligently causing serious injury and one count of failure to stop and render assistance.

Police said Towle would be held in custody and is expected to appear at Mildura Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Two of those killed were from the same family - Shane Hirst, 16, and his sister, Abby, 17.

Stevie-Lee Weight, 15, Cassandra Manners, 16, and Cory Dowling, 16, also died in the accident.

A 16-year-old girl was flown to the Royal Adelaide hospital with life threatening head injuries.

A senior Victorian traffic policeman described the scene as an "absolute nightmare".

Witnesses said the driver abandoned a green Ford station wagon at the scene and fled into a vineyard.

Police later released a statement saying the driver had allegedly taken off leaving two children - a girl aged 10 and a four-year-old boy - still inside the badly damaged vehicle.

They said two groups teenagers had left a birthday party and had started walking along the side of the road.

The car drove past the first group, but hit the second group.

Acting Inspector Mick Talbot of the Major Collision Investigation unit said it was the worst accident he had ever encountered.

"First people on the scene would have found an absolute nightmare," he told reporters today.

"There would have been people and bodies lying everywhere. There would have been utter chaos and bedlam. There would have been people needing urgent treatment, people running all over the place, yelling out, screaming and crying in pain," he said.

"It's something that nobody would want to have been confronted with. It is an absolute nightmare."

Police said the 13 teens had been waiting for taxis when they were hit.

Mildura man Colin Boulton and his son were among the first on the scene.

Mr Boulton said he was driving along Myall Road with his family shortly after the accident happened.

t was very chaotic," he said.

"As soon as we realised something had happened I think both of us just went into [auto] pilot mode and basically tried to help the kids," Mr Boulton told ABC Radio.

"It was a devastating scene of course," he said.

Cardross has been devastated by the accident.

Red Cliffs Secondary College principal John Cortese said he went straight to the hospital when he was notified of the accident.

"At the hospital between 1am and 4am there were at least 600 people, some of them students and some parents," Mr Cortese said.

He said it was obvious from the number of people at the hospital that the accident had left many in shock.

"Obviously news travels fast in a small community like this," he said.

"While the deceased have not been formally identified, it was obvious from some of the faces last night at the hospital that people knew who they were."

Mr Cortese said he had not had any sleep, and had been busy trying to help members of the school community cope with the news.

"I've been very busy, very busy trying to help. It's just devastating news and has shattered the community."

He said he could confirm that at least two of the students who were killed in the accident were from Red Cliffs Secondary College.

"Two of the dead are from the school, two of those injured had just moved to our secondary college [senior] campus this year. One of the injured is also from our school.

"There were about four schools in the area that were involved, they had students either killed or injured in the accident."

Mr Cortese said many of the students in the area knew each other even if they did not attend the same school.

"The kids socialise together, they know each other from playing sport,and things like that."

"We have arranged for support services this afternoon to be available. But obviously the shock will be felt even greater when the students turn up for school tomorrow, so we are making sure there are counselling arrangements in place."

A witness told a Sunday newspaper the victims were spread over 150 metres along Mile Avenue, as people rushed to their aid.

Mildura District Inspector Haydn Downes said the road was poorly lit.

"A single car was going down the road," Inspector Downes said.

"It's a dark area around there. There appeared to have been people walking down the road."

Witness Justin Poulton said: "Everyone was hysterical. People were running everywhere. It was an 18th birthday party, I think. People standing out the front of the house were spread down the road for about 150 metres. My dad and I ran up and started dragging the injured people off the side of the road. People were really scared. They didn't know what to do."

[Captain Stubing]

I just heard on CH10 news, that the driver decamped, leaving his 2 children in the car, ages 4 and 10.

If that's true, it's not going to go well for him.

[347_XR8]

My thoughts go out to the family affected. Something like this would have taken a great toll on them and the community.
The driver gets what he deserves, sorry to be harsh. But c'mon!

[Falcon Coupe]

Originally Posted by ShockWaveXR6na

Yes its hard to feel sorry for these people when they dont care about themselves to start with, drinking and drugs are a serious problem that young Australians are faced with, yet the government does very little about it.

I'm not relying on the government to steer my son towards the right path, that's MY job.

[buickman]

Originally Posted by swanny

I just heard on CH10 news, that the driver decamped, leaving his 2 children in the car, ages 4 and 10.

If that's true, it's not going to go well for him.

I still stand by my judgment what a losser leaving kids to die & younger children to fend for themselves.

There is no excuss for leaving people to die on the roads after you hit them.

[red_hotxr6]

Look at the damage done to that car.How could a father run and leave his kids there. I dont even want to think what the familiees are going through tonight.

[XLS99 Ute man]

You truley have to feel sorry for everybody involved.
Especially the parents who lost both a son and a daughter.

And seriously, if you where the driver, you would have either fled the scene or killed yourself, he would not have been in a frame of mind at all... its just a massive accident...

R.I.P To The 5 Young Victims

[Bucknaked]

I think we need to wait until the full details are released before forming an opinion. Its a tragedy for everyone involved. Something that will be felt for quite sometime to come

[Ryan]

Man thats bloody terrible. :(

Thoughts and prays go out to the family of the Victims.

[Thornie]

Originally Posted by conordec

i'm from the area originally, these kids always have 18th parties on someones block (grapes), if its cardross, sounds like a road called the spiders web, really ИИИИty road, no lights, swervey road, one house every 300mtrs.
80km/h speed limits all around there too.
everyone would have been ИИИИ faced, hope the driver wasn't.

spiders web is sunnycliffs, i do believe that road that the accident happened on is 80km/h
there are no street lights and it's very very dark its a very very sad accident to happen. my guess is the driver panicked, wouldn't u if you had just hit 15 ppl.

[Falcon Freak]

The news gets worse about this accident as it has just been announced that a sixth person has died: Newsflash

FF

[svo347]

Originally Posted by flappist

Do you think the driver deserves the at least some presumption of innocence until proven guilty?

Of course but to leave the scene of an accident with your kids in the back????
:

[HOON69]

i believe in the courts and i believe in innocent until proven guilty and even though i know the driver is to blame,we weren't there and ppl do dramatize whilst in shock

i believe the driver was not doing the speed limit,i believe the kids were walking on the road,i believe the driver wasn't driving to the conditions of the road (dark etc) and i believe the road wasnt a well LITE street anyways,he ran from the scene proved his guilty and its a sad case of recklessness though not intentional its recklessness that killed five innocent teens,i feel for those families i feel for those kids whom aint gunna be seeing their father for a long while.

just SAD PERIOD! :(

[GTS_300_Coupe]

Originally Posted by svo347

Of course but to leave the scene of an accident with your kids in the back????
:

He freaked out, what do you do? He just killed some teenagers. The thought hit him and he lost his mind.

[svo347]

Originally Posted by GTS_300_Coupe

He freaked out, what do you do? He just killed some teenagers. The thought hit him and he lost his mind.

Id be making sure MY kids in the back were infact safe.
thats what i would do.....
As for have you been in an accident, yes unfortunately when i was 17 and still havent forgotten about it, nor did i forget about my friend that died or my friends that were in the back injured.........

[conordec]

Originally Posted by RaTTuS

spiders web is sunnycliffs, i do believe that road that the accident happened on is 80km/h
there are no street lights and it's very very dark its a very very sad accident to happen. my guess is the driver panicked, wouldn't u if you had just hit 15 ppl.

ur right, saw some pics, orange trees one side, vineyards the other, not one street light to be seen.
a mate of mine had to get 3 of them ready to be sent down to melbourne (Funeral parlour guy) said the towns a mess.
Main street deakin will be a scarey place to be tomorrow, sad indeed.

[XR6Gal]

Unfortunately I just heard on the news that another one of the kids have died....such a shame.

[Hunter]

I don't think it is anyones place to say who is guilty and who isn't. As has already been said, without possession of all of the relevant facts, you cannot make a sound judgement. And again, as said before, the media is far from a reliable and impartial source of facts. If anything its the polar opposite.

Anyway, I think this accident has yet again highlighted the dangers of driving... you never really know what's just around that bend. Even if you are doing the limit, you could round a bend and some idiot is laying on the road and BAM you hit him.

When I get down to thinking about how dangerous driving can be and just how easy it is for your lethal weapon to kill people, sometimes I feel like not driving at all. I mean for example, one of your tyres could suffer a failure after being punctured by something on the road and you lose control and spear into a crowd and wipe out a bunch of kids. God forbid that ever happen because you will be crucified, even though its not really your fault.

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often in fact.

[Thornie]

Originally Posted by XR6Gal

Unfortunately I just heard on the news that another one of the kids have died....such a shame.

according to my fiance who is apperantly in "know" another two died taking the toll to 7.

[jabba]

Originally Posted by svo347

Of course but to leave the scene of an accident with your kids in the back????
:

That is pretty ИИИИed. I would certainly hate to be in his shoes at the moment.

One thing I have noticed in all the media stories that I have read and seen on TV is, there is no mention about whether or not the driver was driving below or above the speed limit, and was he was wasn't he driving irradically. I would tend to think that the driver would have been driving to the limit and not fooling around due to having his 2 kids in the back of the car. But on the other hand, he also could of been one of those irrasponcable parents and may of been drunk also at the time of the accident, which may explain why he did the runner. Lastly, he himself may (and I dare say he would) no doubt be in shock fron running over 12 kids. (I can not even begine to imagine how I would react in that give situation). Add to that quite a few drunk and angry 17-18yo that may of been threating him. There a lot of factors that we don't know about in this accident. So lets take it as a lesson for us all.

Things Don't add up, Why have i read nothing that the driver has said ,where is his side of the story?

Look at this Pic



And all the damage is on the passanger side of the car



Now IMO the first group were in the middle of the road and caused the car to swerve off the side of the road ,and due to the soft red dirt the driver has over corrected and lost control collecting the people in the second group,who were also on the road ,

Drinking and drunk! How bad will some of those kids feel when it sinks in that they may of caused this accident and the death of there freinds?

Another way it may of happened