Seat belts avert road crash slaughter

– Dion Teasdale
FIFTEEN people narrowly escaped death or horrific injuries in two separate road collisions on the Maroondah Highway near Coldstream last week.
The first collision, involving six children under the age of seven in a Toyota Tarago driven by a 35-year-old woman from Lilydale, happened shortly after 5pm on Tuesday, 26 September.
The second involved a three-car pile-up on Friday, 29 September near the intersection of Killara and Station roads, in which eight people were lucky to avoid serious injury.
Senior Constable Kevin Cronin from Lilydale police said the first collision served as a stark reminder for people travelling with children to use and properly fit seat belts.
“This single vehicle collision could have been much worse had all six children not been wearing seat belts,” he said.
“We could have had children thrown from the vehicle and there would almost certainly have been terrible injuries and even death.”
Sen Const Cronin said the children and the female driver sustained only minor injuries after their vehicle collided head-on with a tree.
Constable Ilona Gerencfer, also from Lilydale police, said the occupants of the three cars involved in the second collision were extremely lucky.
She said a 74-year-old woman from Steels Creek and her two female passengers sustained only minor injuries when their vehicle, a Subaru, ploughed into the back of a stationary car, a Ford, and a truck.
“The women in the Subaru were very lucky to escape with their lives, as were the male driver and three children in the Ford, who were in the area from Hoppers Crossing,” she said.
“Airbags were the saving grace for the women in the Subaru. Without them they might not be here to tell their story.”
Const Gerencfer said the Mt Evelyn driver of the truck, which was also involved in the collision, escaped without injury.