logo
Two drivers seriously injured after West Gate Freeway crash

Two drivers seriously injured after West Gate Freeway crash

The Australian3 days ago
A major arterial road in Melbourne has been closed after a 4WD towing a horse float collided with a truck and a car.
The three-vehicle incident unfolded on the West Gate Fwy about 12.10pm on Saturday between Montague and Power Sts.
Police say the Montague St on ramp has been blocked and traffic is being diverted.
There are significant delays with multiple inbound lanes shut down. Picture: VicTraffic
Drivers of the 4WD and the car suffered serious injuries and have been taken to hospital, while the truck driver was not injured.
No animals were injured in the incident.
All inbound lanes between Montague St and the Burnley Tunnel have been closed, according to VicTraffic.
Drivers are being urged to use Montague St, City Rd and Power St or Kings Way and Dandenong Rd.
Inbown lanes of the West Gate have been closed. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui
'The exact cause of the collision is yet to be determined at this stage,' a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.
'Anyone who witnessed the incident, has dashcam footage or with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.'
Liam Beatty
Journalist
Liam Beatty is a court reporter with NCA NewsWire. He has previously worked in newsrooms in Victoria and Western Australia.
Liam Beatty
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Roadblocks remain for Aussie EV drivers despite sales rising as BYD battles Tesla for dominance
Roadblocks remain for Aussie EV drivers despite sales rising as BYD battles Tesla for dominance

ABC News

time20 hours ago

  • ABC News

Roadblocks remain for Aussie EV drivers despite sales rising as BYD battles Tesla for dominance

Australia's electric vehicle market is booming, but scratch the surface and there are still big roadblocks ahead. At a recent EV show in Melbourne, shiny new models and bold branding painted a picture of progress — yet behind the scenes, questions remained about affordability, infrastructure, and looming tax changes that could slow the momentum. "Next year, 70 new models hit the market and new brands come to the market as well," Ray Evans, the show's organiser, said. "So the consumers are the winners." Many of the new entrants are coming from one place: China. Chinese manufacturers like BYD and MG are carving out market share by undercutting legacy brands. The lowest-cost EV on the market sells for $30,000 before on-road costs. "We're starting to see the Chinese electric makers catch up, and that's another big factor because they're pitching pretty interesting electric vehicles at a lower price," Giles Parkinson, founder of The Driven, said. Tesla is still the biggest-selling EV maker in Australia at 4,589 cars sold in June. But once plug-in hybrids are included, BYD outsold Tesla in the first half of 2025. Despite the hype, electric vehicles still account for only a fraction of new car sales. In June, a record of just over 10 per cent (13,169 vehicles) of new car sales were electric, according to data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries and Electric Vehicle Council, compiled by The Driven. If you include plug-in hybrids, electrified cars made up 15.2 per cent. While lower sale prices and lower running costs are enticing, there are some concerns about long-term reliability, resale value and local servicing support. Some potential buyers remain cautious, especially about charging their cars on longer trips. "We are still exploring, because we are very used to the petrol, you know," said one woman at the show. Others say they are ready — if the price and size are right. "We've driven a few, it's quite smooth, so I am happy to go with an EV," said another. "I don't ever have to go to a petrol station anymore. It's just about finding the right size of car." Australia's new vehicle emissions standards (NVES) introduced this year are expected to boost EV sales. This month, penalties kicked in for car makers who did not meet the new fleet-wide emissions targets. Basically, the NVES sets an emissions ceiling on the total car sales of each automaker, with heavy penalties for those who exceed it. There is a lot of debate about whether the standards are tough enough to meet previous forecasts about the take-up for EVs. To dodge fines, car makers will need to balance the sales of high-emission models like utes and 4WDs by selling hybrids and EVs to bring down their overall fleet emissions. Industry observers say those rules act as a powerful incentive for car makers that continue to sell petrol vehicles to shift to EVs and hybrids, even at a loss. "So you're starting to see them really push out some of their offerings at a much lower price just to sort of get that sales number up," Mr Parkinson said. "Because if they don't meet those sales numbers or those emissions standards — and it's an average, it's not applied to each individual car, it's an average over a year — they don't meet that average, then they have to pay another car maker credits. "And they'd rather keep the money themselves, even if they have to take a bit of a loss on their own cars." XPeng is another Chinese brand that sees Australia as an attractive market for EV car makers. "Australia doesn't have a domestic car industry that we need to protect, so a lot of those potential tariffs or barriers or boundaries for entry have gone," Jason Clarke, XPeng distributor and CEO of True EV, said. However, despite government rhetoric around the shift to EVs, Australia still lacks a national charging strategy — and consumers are bearing the brunt. "I travel to Canberra a bit from Sydney … I do find I have to plan for charging," said Mr Clarke. "I find the availability of charging publicly is OK, but the speed and the maintenance I am finding now is very problematic. "With fast charging, you can get a full charge in 20 minutes, but that's depending on the supply, and if you're getting 20 kilowatts being fed in or 150 is very, very different." There are other major roadblocks on the horizon for the EV market. Despite the high court ruling that Victoria's version of the EV road user tax was unconstitutional, such a tax in place of the fuel excise tax is considered inevitable by many, including the federal treasurer. "[A] road user tax placed on top of the already existing taxes really doesn't make sense," Scott Maynard, managing director of Polestar Australia, said. Also under threat is the fringe benefits tax exemption on EVs — a policy widely credited with driving recent growth. Mr Maynard is instead calling for the federal government to scrap tax breaks for utes. "That's an exemption that has been afforded to those vehicles since 1986 and costs taxpayers millions of dollars," he said. "It makes far more sense to put those subsidies towards vehicles that will create cleaner air, and also help our health and also put vehicles in the hands of customers that are cheaper to get into and cheaper to own." Reduced US government subsidies have already knocked Tesla's sales. But back at the Melbourne EV show, there was no official Tesla stall to guard against the growing threat to its market dominance in Australia. Instead, a diehard group of Tesla owners was happy to represent the company for free. "We are just a group of people who love our cars," Ross Hetherington, a long-time Tesla driver, said. Mr Hetherington was quick to defend the brand's controversial CEO, too. "I drive the car for the car. I mean, Elon Musk owns 12.5 per cent of Tesla. He's not… he… Tesla employs 150,000 people globally. He's one man." Asked if he would ever return to a petrol vehicle? "There is no way," he said.

Oscar Piastri clinches historic win
Oscar Piastri clinches historic win

ABC News

timea day ago

  • ABC News

Oscar Piastri clinches historic win

Andy Park: He's long been fettered as the one, the one Australian Formula One driver who'll go beyond all others. But on the weekend, well, that's already happened. Melbourne-born Oscar Piastri's win at the Belgium Grand Prix all but seals his record. He's already arguably the best Formula One driver in Australian history. It comes as his home Grand Prix in Australia eyes some major changes designed to accommodate soaring crowd numbers. Dijana Damjanovic prepared this report. Archive: Oscar Piastri wins the Belgian Grand Prix. He beats his team to the world record. Dijana Damjanovic: He's the man on track to be the best Formula One driver Australia has ever seen. And he's just clinched another historic victory in the Belgian F1. Oscar Piastri's McLaren team weren't holding back when showing their satisfaction with his performance. Archive: Great afternoon. Really good. Let's go. Really good job, mate. Really good. Nicely done. Nicely done. Dijana Damjanovic: The man himself sticking with his signature disciplined tone post-race. Oscar Piastri: Yeah, I got a good exit of turn one and then, yeah, lifted as little as I did through Eau Rouge and, yeah, then that it was enough. We had it mostly under control. Turns out starting second at Spa's not too bad after all. Dijana Damjanovic: After a disappointing first day performance in Belgium, Piastri turned the tables in a first lap masterstroke on day two, passing teammate and first placed Lando Norris, and he hung on. Matt Cooch is an F1 journalist. Matt Cooch: We had to wait something like 80 minutes for that because of rain delays and all sorts of things. But once the race got going, he tucked himself in behind Lando Norris, his McLaren teammate, got the slipstream and then made the move happen at the first time of asking and from there on controlled the race. Really beautifully resisted pressure as it built through the final third of the race and brought home another fantastic win. Dijana Damjanovic: This latest win is Piastri's sixth for the 2025 season, breaking the record for most wins by an Australian driver in a single Formula One season. Jack Brabham won five races when he won the second of his three world championships in 1960. Alan Jones equalled Brabham's mark in 1980, but now Oscar Piastri has surpassed them both. Stephen Ottley: And so I think this is really just the inevitable outcome of an incredibly talented young man who's going to, I think, have a very long and successful career in Formula One. Dijana Damjanovic: Piastri also now has as many race career wins as Australian racing star Daniel Ricciardo. Stephen Ottley is the editor of Talk Cafe, an online automotive magazine. He says Piastri could be coming to the Australian Grand Prix in March next year as the world champion. Stephen Ottley: I think that's only going to drive more interest and it's only going to drive more spectators and you're going to need to, you know, the organisers are going to need to accommodate that. Dijana Damjanovic: As the sport grows in Australia with spectator numbers on the rise, the Victorian government is also looking to make changes to the Melbourne Grand Prix Race Festival. It's now seeking feedback on extending the race period from seven days to three weeks to give organisers more time to set up race infrastructure. Stephen Ottley says as a spectator himself, the change is needed. Stephen Ottley: The scale of it in the last few years that I've been is enormous. The bridges, all those kind of infrastructure, I think, need to be expanded so we can get more people in and in a more comfortable and safer way. Dijana Damjanovic: And to the tournament underway, the F1 heads to Hungary this weekend. The same track Oscar Piastri got his first ever victory last season. Oscar Piastri: Yeah, it's going to be exciting to go back. It's a track I enjoy and yes, seeing my first win last year. So I'm looking forward to getting back and hopefully we can continue the momentum because this weekend the pace has been incredibly strong. Andy Park: Australian Formula One driver Oscar Piastri ending that report by Dijana Damjanovic.

Radio giant Kyle Sandilands breaks silence after horror Rose Bay crash
Radio giant Kyle Sandilands breaks silence after horror Rose Bay crash

The Australian

timea day ago

  • The Australian

Radio giant Kyle Sandilands breaks silence after horror Rose Bay crash

Radio giant Kyle Sandilands has broken his silence after his chauffeur was involved in a horrific accident in Sydney's eastern suburbs on the weekend. The 54-year-old, shared details on the KIIS FM's Kyle & Jackie O show on Monday of the crash involving his driver George Plassaras who broke multiple bones in the collision involving a $1 million Rolls-Royce. 'You may have seen over the weekend, it was all over the news, a head-on collision in Rose Bay in Sydney with a Rolls-Royce and a Mercedes,' he said. 'Well, that was my driver, George.' Kyle Sandilands has broken his silence after his driver George Plassaras was involved in a car accident in Rose Bay. Picture: Instagram Kyle Sandilands. Picture: Instagram The Rolls-Royce, allegedly driven by a 23-year-old woman, crashed into Mr Plassaras, 52, who was driving a Mercedes on New South Head Road, Rose Bay, about 3.30am on Saturday. Mr Plassaras suffered horrific injuries in the crash, the shock jock explained. Among the injuries, he suffered a broken spine, broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and diaphragm, a torn open abdomen, two broken hips and two broken femurs, Mr Sandilands said. Meanwhile, the driver of the Tiffany Blue Rolls Royce, which is thought to be worth $1 million, was not injured. Mr Sandilands, thanked his chauffeur for being the 'greatest employee ever'. 'What did [he] say when he was taken away in the ambulance? He asked for his mobile phone so he could do what?' he said. 'This is a guy at 4.30 in the morning after he has been cut out of his vehicle, he's been trapped in his van for an hour, this poor bloke. 'And he asks the ambo: 'Get my phone so I can make sure Kyle's all right for the week.' Incredible images from the scene of the crash showed debris from both vehicles strewn all over the eastern suburbs road in the early hours of Saturday morning. NSW Police said Mr Plassaras was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a stable condition. Meanwhile, the driver was subjected to a roadside breath test, which returned a positive result, police allege. She was arrested and taken to Waverley Police Station where she allegedly refused to undergo a breath analysis. She was charged with cause bodily harm by misconduct, in charge of motor vehicle and refuse or fail to submit to breath analysis. She was given conditional bail to appear before the Downing Centre Local Court on August 15. Rhiannon Lewin Court Reporter Rhiannon is a Sydney-based court reporter with NewsWire. Formerly the NSW Editor at she is now on the ground covering some of the state's most high-profile criminal cases. Rhiannon Lewin

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store