A truck driver has died in a horrific two-vehicle collision with a sedan in Port Melbourne — but the driver of the car survived unscathed.
Police and firefighters were called to Lorimer Street, Port Melbourne, about 5.20am on Friday after reports a truck had smashed into a tree and caught fire.
Detective Sergeant Mark Amos said a white Chrysler sedan crashed into the cement tanker as it was turning right on Lorimer Street out of the Cement Australia gate, causing it to smash into a nearby tree.
“I’d imagine it’s [the car] probably struck the fuel tanks on the driver’s side of the truck which then possibly ruptured,” he said.
When police arrived, they found the truck driver dead on the road, the detective said.
“The driver of the truck then appears to have fallen from the truck at some stage in the collision and landed on the road, and unfortunately suffered fatal injuries at the scene.”
But police are unsure of how the truck driver died, saying the cabin of the tanker was “completely gutted”.
“Sufficient to say he’s come out of the truck in some fashion – it’s very hard to tell when the truck has been completely gutted by fire,” Detective Sergeant Amos said.
“But he’s come out of the truck in some fashion, hard enough to hit the road, and that’s caused him a fatal injury.
“He has sustained some burns, but I couldn’t tell you what the cause of the death has been.”
Detective Sergeant Amos said the driver of the car, a man in his 20s, has spoken to police.
“He’s obviously very shocked and very upset … [but] he was’t hurt in the crash,” the detective said.
Despite being “substantially damaged”, the car did not catch on fire and the driver is understood to have walked out unscathed.
“A car hitting a truck, he’s very lucky he wasn’t hurt – very, very lucky”.
Police will check whether the Chrysler was speeding at the time, Detective Sergeant Amos said.
“At the end of the day, it’s an absolutely tragic and appalling set of circumstances for a family today,” he said.
This story first appeared in The Age
“A wife has lost a husband, children may well have lost a father and going to work and driving on a road shouldn’t be that sort of risk to anybody.”
