TWO men, believed to be a father and son from Kalgoorlie, were incinerated when their current model Holden Commodore turned into a “fireball” after it was hit from behind by a B double truck at a Kellerberrin level crossing on Monday.
The driver, 54, and his son, 21, in the front passenger’s seat, were stopped at the crossing waiting for boom barriers to rise and flashing lights and warning bells to cease operating after a freight train had crossed the Great Eastern Highway in front of them when the prime mover pulling two trailers slammed into them.
The impact ruptured the car’s fuel tank and witnesses told police it was already a “fireball” as the wreckage was pushed through the boom barriers, across the level crossing and off the edge of the opposite side of the highway by the truck.
A Wheatbelt man in his 30s, who was stopped on the other side of the crossing, was saved only by his quick thinking and reactions.
Sergeant Steve McCrae of Kellerberrin police said the man realised the truck was not going to stop in time and that he too was in danger although he was on the opposite side of the level crossing and the highway.
The man jammed his car in reverse and accelerated backwards out of the way as the truck shoved the fireball wreck of the car through the boom barrier immediately in front of him and off the highway beside where he had been stopped seconds before, Sergeant McCrea said.
He and Kellerberrin Road Rescue members said there was nothing anyone could do to try to release the two men from the burning car.
“We’ve been told it was already a fireball as the truck was pushing it through the level crossing,” Sergeant McCrae said.
Road rescue members had to use hydraulic jaws to open the car doors to allow the bodies to be retrieved about five hours after the smash happened at 5pm.
The highway at the west end of Kellerberrin remained closed until 1.30am, with traffic diverted along Scaddan Street, while the police major crash unit investigated and railway workers repaired the boom barriers.
The truck was impounded by police and it and the car have been taken to Perth.
The next morning white painted dots on the highway showed where police investigators had marked the course of the truck.
Skid marks showing locked wheels skipping on the road surface start about 100 metres back from the level crossing on the western side.
Gouge marks in the asphalt near the point of impact are about 30 metres back from the crossing.
The skid marks continue through the crossing and run off the southern side of the highway, ending about 40 metres east of the crossing.
A small area of blackened grass and disturbed soil indicated where the burning car came to rest.
A bunch of flowers was on that spot the morning after the crash.
Sergeant McCrae said the “disaster” was “a crash that did not need to happen”.
“It was totally avoidable from our point of view,” he said.
Sergeant McCrae said there were four signs along the highway warning of the level crossing, the speed limit reduced from 110 to 90km/h before the crossing, the boom barriers, lights and warning bells were operating, and the approach to the crossing is a 1.5 kilometre long straight stretch with good vision.
A truck driver, 45, from Goolma, near Dubbo in central NSW, has been charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death and was due to face Perth Magistrates Court the day after the crash.
