Latest news with #MarkAmos
ABC News
23-05-2025
- ABC News
Man arrested after pedestrian's body discovered on Morwell roadside
Police have interviewed a man following the discovery of a body on the side of a road in Morwell in eastern Victoria. Police say a 40-year-old father from Traralgon was walking along the base of the Princes Way overpass on the Princes Freeway when he was likely struck by a vehicle. His body was discovered at about 9am on Thursday by a commuter. Sergeant Mark Amos of the Major Collision Investigation Unit told the ABC the deceased man's body could have been lying in the grass for eight hours. "He's been found next to the barrier with injuries consistent with being hit by a vehicle," he said. Detectives searched the scene for evidence for most of Thursday. A 28-year-old Lakes Entrance man was arrested 128 kilometres away in Bairnsdale late on Thursday afternoon and has been interviewed by police. He has been released without charge pending further enquiries. Police are calling on people who were driving in the area between 1am and 9am on Thursday, May 22, to come forward with information that may be of interest. They are also asking anyone with road-facing CCTV to look through the footage.
Herald Sun
18-05-2025
- Herald Sun
Angela Mollard opinion: The tragic reminders in our road toll that driving is a privilege that comes with a pulse
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News. We don't know her name. We don't know if she was on her way to a birthday party or sport or the shops. What we do know is that she was five. Blonde. With a mouthful of baby teeth. In her picture she's grinning and wearing a flower crown. But that was another life. Because now she's gone. It was a split-second crash with another vehicle. An intersection. Possibly a moment's inattention. She lost her life last Saturday at the unfortunately named Luck Road, south of Toowoomba in Queensland. We don't know her, but we can see her. And that should be enough. Enough to shake us, to drag us out of our complacency and make us reframe what it actually means to drive. Because driving is not quotidian. It's not casual or benign. It's not a right you keep just because you passed a test in 1989 and can still kind of parallel park. Driving is a privilege that comes with a pulse. The little girl with the flower crown? She was someone's whole world. LIVES RUINED IN AN INSTANT A day later, 1683km away in Victoria, two teenagers also lost their whole world. It was Mother's Day. Early evening. They were in the back seat. Their dad was driving. Police say he went through a stop sign and crashed into another vehicle. The mum, 49, died at the scene while the rest of her family were rushed to hospital. Perhaps it was because Mother's Day was the first day of National Road Safety Week. Perhaps it's because our national road toll is the worst it's been in years. Perhaps it was because Detective Sergeant Mark Amos has seen too much. Hurt too much. He didn't hold back. It was an absolute tragedy, he said. A crash that should never have occurred. 'Just a moment of inattention, a moment's distraction, you go through a stop sign and you ruin your life and the lives of your family in a single blow.' The language of road deaths is neutralised and sanitised. We call them 'accidents' as if there is no blame. We refer to the 'road toll' as if it's a ledger item and 'fatalities' as if they're a faceless and unfortunate consequence of our prosaic need to 'get from A to B'. 'YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE SOMEBODY' Yet last year 1300 vibrant lives ended violently and shockingly on our roads, the deadliest year since 2012. Picture that as the equivalent of a large secondary school or three Boeing 747s. Clearly DS Amos does. Telling the family, he said, 'was no easy task'. And then he rammed his message home as hard and sharp as the sound of metal on bitumen. 'Pay attention, be alert, slow down, concentrate,' he said. 'Without doing that, you're going to lose somebody. Somebody dear, somebody close and somebody important.' Yet we don't pay attention do we? We're far too cavalier about the weapons we all so blithely operate. We treat driving like we're making a cuppa. Routine. Done with half our brain while the other half thinks about dinner, or chooses a song or asks Siri to phone a mate because driving is dead time right? Full transparency, I used to be a shocking driver. Inattentive and irritated by the time it took up. But then I exceeded the demerit point limit on my licence. Twice. I had to re-sit my Knowledge Test and complete a driver education course. It took hours. Long precious hours. It's also one of the most valuable things I've ever done. I have a new-found reverence for the road. I know the facts about speed and I know that teens are five times more likely to use mobile phones behind the wheel if they've observed their parents do the same. I ask my daughters to drive me places so I can quietly check on their habits. Every time I see a wooden cross on a highway, I picture the person it represents. How can our road toll last year be 18.5% higher than 2021 when a decade-long plan to halve road deaths was introduced? I also seek out names and faces. A LETTER FOR CHARLIE When South Australian police commissioner Grant Stevens wrote a letter to his 18-year-old son Charlie when he became the 101st person to lose his life on the state's roads in a hit-and-run in 2023 I read every word. Stevens hand wrote the letter in his son's bedroom where dirty clothes lay on the floor and an empty KFC box spoke to a life that was and would never be again. Charlie, according to his dad, 'loved his mum's curried sausages, but he didn't know where the dishwasher was.' 'I'M NUMB' When I met Danny Abdallah, who lost three children when a driver mounted the footpath in Western Sydney in 2020, he shone with grace. But we should continue to heed his words the day after his children died. 'I'm numb. All I want to say is please, drivers, be careful.' Driving is a privilege yet its consequences can be as wide as grief and as permanent as the loss of the little girl in the flower crown. Let's not wait until tragedy reminds us. ANGE'S A-LIST SLEEP HACK: I'd never thought of a 'go to bed' alarm but set one up on my phone a few weeks ago. I don't always abide by it but I like the reminder of my intention to be in bed by 9pm. SCARLET FEVER: I'm not a fan of red but recently I bought a tomato red cardigan from H & M ($24.99) and it has reinvigorated my wardrobe. Slung over a white shirt and paired with dark denim, camel pants or even with pink, it's amazingly cherry. Oops … cheery. Originally published as Tragic reminders in our road toll that driving is a privilege that comes with a pulse
7NEWS
15-05-2025
- 7NEWS
Teenage boy fighting for life following crash on Western Ring Rd in Melbourne
A teenage boy is fighting for life following a horrific collision on a major freeway. Two cars, a Honda sedan and a Great Wall SUV, collided on the Western Ring Rd between Ballarat Rd and Furlong Rd in Melbourne about 11.30pm on Thursday. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today It's understood the Honda had crossed over several lanes before crashing into the Great Wall. A 17-year-old male passenger inside the Honda was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, while the driver and another passenger ran from the scene. The occupants inside the Great Wall were not injured. Two 20-year-old men have since been arrested and taken to hospital under police guard. Detective Sergeant Mark Amos criticised the two men for their actions in leaving their critically injured friend behind. '(They) jumped out of the car instead of sticking around to look after their mate they've taken off,' he told Sunrise. 'It buggers me how they think like that, you don't leave your mates behind.' It's been a horrific week in Victoria for road fatalities, with 13 people dying in road-related accidents since Saturday. Amos said the sheer numbers of fatal accidents or those resulting in serious injury was 'absolutely ridiculous'. 'If people don't get a grip on this, we're just going to continue to see this,' he said. 'Families are going to get wrecked, people's lives will be destroyed we've got to get on top of it, and it's up to everyone behind the wheel of a car to do that.' Police are continuing to investigate the crash. Anyone who witnessed the collision or has any dashcam footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
The Age
12-05-2025
- The Age
Mother's Day horror: Teens mourn mum from hospital as six killed in road tragedies
Two teenagers are mourning their mother's death and their father is fighting for life after their family car rolled down an embankment on Mother's Day, in one of a spate of fatal crashes on Victoria's roads. The woman, aged 49 from Dandenong North in Melbourne's south-east, was travelling with her 19-year-old daughter, 15-year-old son and 52-year-old husband on Sunday when their silver Toyota collided with another vehicle at an intersection in Trafalgar, west Gippsland, just before 6pm. The woman's death was one of six on Victorian roads over the Mother's Day weekend and into Monday morning. The woman's husband was driving when he allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign, moving into the path of another car before the crash, which sent the family's vehicle rolling off the road. The woman died at the scene, while her husband and the two teenagers were taken to hospital with serious injuries. The teenagers were sitting in the back of the Toyota. 'It's an absolute tragedy that we've got the loss of a life, a wife, a mother, on Mother's Day … killed in a crash that just should never, ever have occurred. Just a moment of inattention, a moment of distraction,' Detective Sergeant Mark Amos said. 'They've been there when they've lost their mum, on the worst possible day to lose your mum.' The woman's husband was flown to The Alfred, where he was in a critical condition on Monday. Their son was flown to a Melbourne hospital in a serious condition.
Sky News AU
12-05-2025
- Sky News AU
Five dead after four separate crashes on Victoria's roads within 48 hours, including head-on collision in Clayton South
Five people have died following four separate crashes in Victoria within 48 hours, with police issuing an urgent plea to drivers amid the fatalities. Two of the fatalities occurred on Monday morning after a head-on crash in Clayton South, Melbourne's south-east. A male and a female driver - the sole occupants of the vehicles they were each driving - collided at the Westall Road and Rosebank Avenue intersection just before 6am. Both drivers were declared dead at the scene but have not yet been formally identified. Westall Road was shut in both directions between Heatherton and Centre roads following the crash, with multiple emergency services personnel at the scene. About 12 hours earlier, a 49-year-old Dandenong North woman died following a two-car crash in Trafalgar, in the state's Gippsland region. The woman was a passenger in a vehicle which collided with another car at the North Canal and Willow Grove roads intersection about 5.55pm on Sunday. Police said the car in which the woman was travelling "rolled off the road and down an embankment as a result of the collision". The vehicle was being driven by her 52-year-old husband, with their two children, a 19-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy, also in the vehicle. They were all rushed to hospital with serious injuries. "It's just an absolute tragedy that we've got the loss of a life, a wife, a mother - on Mother's Day - is killed in a crash that just should never ever have occurred," Detective Sergeant Mark Amos said, the ABC reported. There are reports one of the vehicles did not stop at a stop sign. A 60-year-old Yarragon man who was driving the other car was left with minor injuries, while his 58-year-old female passenger, also from Yarragon, was rushed to hospital suffering serious injuries. About 4pm on Sunday, a driver also died after a two-car collision at the intersection of Springbank and Bungaree-Creswick roads in Pootilla, near Ballarat. The deceased driver has not yet been formally identified. The other driver was not injured in the crash. The fourth fatal crash occurred between a motorcycle and a vehicle at the Mill and Taylors roads intersection in Moutajup, in the state's south-west, about 4.30pm on Saturday. A 53-year-old man from Coleraine who was riding the motorcycle died at the scene, while his passenger was flown to hospital with life-threatening injuries. A 20-year-old Lake Mundi man who was driving the vehicle was not injured. Detectives interviewed that man but he was "released pending further enquiries". Anyone with information about any of the crashes is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. A male pedestrian was also rushed to hospital suffering critical injuries after being hit by a vehicle on on Geelong Street in West Footscray about 8.20am on Monday. Police on Monday morning said Highway Patrol units, Public Order Response Team officers and general duties police will be "saturating freeways, highways and roads" amid National Road Safety Week. The operation comes as provisional data for 2025 reveals speed was a factor in 31 road deaths. "This highly visible presence is not only about detecting speedsters but also deterring others from making the same mistake," Road Policing Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said. "Every year we see the devastating impacts of speeding. "From those whose lives are lost to their family members, partners, friends, work colleagues and emergency services who attend the scene – it ends up being many thousands of lives impacted by speeding behaviours."
