Five people are dead after a fiery head-on crash on the Stuart Highway southeast of Darwin, with police warning the toll on families, witnesses and first responders will be long lasting.<\/p>\n
A Toyota HiAce van and a Ford Ranger collided about 12.50pm on Wednesday, about 2km south of the Marrakai Rd turn-off. <\/p>\n
Northern Territory Acting Commander of Crime Robert Griffiths said both vehicles \u201cwere engulfed in fire soon after that collision\u201d and everyone inside died at the scene.<\/p>\n
NT Police initially reported four deaths before a fifth victim was found during the painstaking examination of the wreckage. <\/p>\n
Mr Griffiths said the scene had been catastrophic and urged people not to speculate about what caused the crash while investigators and coronial processes continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is obviously a horrific scene to have to attend,\u201d Mr Griffiths said<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will have a long and deep impact on everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dead are believed to be a 69-year-old woman, who was the sole occupant of the Toyota HiAce, and four people travelling in the Ford Ranger: a 23-year-old man who was driving, a 23-year-old woman, a 36-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman.<\/p>\n
Formal identification remains under way through a Disaster Victim Identification process (DVI).<\/p>\n
Police believe all five were Northern Territory residents, with preliminary inquiries linking them to the Greater Darwin and Roper Gulf regions.<\/p>\n
Investigators said the Ford Ranger was travelling northbound when, for reasons not yet known, it crossed onto the wrong side of the Stuart Highway and slammed head-on into the southbound Toyota HiAce.<\/p>\n
Both vehicles were left with catastrophic damage and caught fire soon after impact.<\/p>\n
Members of the public who witnessed the crash rushed to help before emergency crews arrived but were unable to save the occupants before fire consumed the vehicles. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were members of the public who were nearby \u2026 (they) did everything they possibly could to preserve the scene, to preserve life, and unfortunately, despite the efforts of everyone involved, we now stand before you with five lives lost on Territory roads,\u201d Mr Griffiths said.<\/p>\n
The destruction caused by the fire also complicated the recovery operation, with Mr Griffiths stating the DVI team was still working through the vehicles to ensure everyone involved was identified properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive people have tragically lost their lives on Territory roads through this crash. This impact will be longstanding. There is no doubt about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The stretch of the Stuart Highway where the crash happened remained a crime scene on Thursday, with a detour in place and delays expected for motorists. <\/p>\n
Police are urging anyone who witnessed either vehicle before the collision to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five people are dead after a fiery head-on crash on the Stuart Highway southeast of Darwin, with police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85203,53574,85239,85206,85234,85226,49493,85250,85222,85229,85219,85244,85227,85251,85242,85213,85253,85208,76285,22,21,81001,22688,85217,85225,6822,2747,85238,85246,85243,41878,18571,844,85220,75027,85221,85209,77841,69306,85205,85214,85245,3430,37532,18324,85235,379,85212,85223,7350,31458,1047,85228,42523,85224,85233,21760,85230,85218,48336,41672,81068,85210,85207,37262,85231,85232,85236,85237,85204,37118,85248,37168,85216,63748,85252,85247,85249,85240,85211,85241,70112,47479,43160,73570,39590,7444,22441,85215],"class_list":["post-67232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-12-50pm","tag-a-23-year-old-man","tag-a-23-year-old-woman","tag-a-32-year-old-woman-formal-identification","tag-a-36-year-old-man","tag-a-69-year-old-woman","tag-a-crime-scene","tag-a-detour","tag-a-disaster-victim-identification-process","tag-a-fiery-head-on-crash","tag-a-fifth-victim","tag-a-ford-ranger","tag-a-horrific-crash","tag-a-horrific-scene","tag-a-long-and-deep-impact","tag-a-major-highway","tag-a-toyota-hiace-van","tag-about-2km","tag-all-five","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-both-vehicles","tag-bystanders","tag-catastrophic-damage","tag-crime-robert-griffiths","tag-darwin","tag-delays","tag-destruction","tag-dvi","tag-either-vehicle","tag-emergency-crews","tag-families","tag-fire","tag-five-lives","tag-five-people","tag-ford-ranger-and-toyota-hiace","tag-four-deaths","tag-four-people","tag-head-on","tag-horrific-scene","tag-impact-members","tag-investigators-and-coronial-processes","tag-life","tag-members","tag-motorists","tag-mr-griffiths","tag-newswire-news","tag-northern-territory-acting-commander","tag-northern-territory-residents","tag-people","tag-place","tag-police","tag-preliminary-inquiries","tag-reasons","tag-shocking-crash","tag-stretch","tag-stuart-highway","tag-territory-roads","tag-that-collision","tag-the-collision","tag-the-crash","tag-the-dead","tag-the-dvi-team","tag-the-efforts","tag-the-fire","tag-the-ford-ranger","tag-the-greater-darwin-and-roper-gulf-regions-investigators","tag-the-marrakai-rd-turn-off","tag-the-occupants","tag-the-painstaking-examination","tag-the-public","tag-the-recovery-operation","tag-the-scene","tag-the-scene-nt-police","tag-the-sole-occupant","tag-the-southbound-toyota-hiace-both-vehicles","tag-the-stuart-highway","tag-the-stuart-highway-southeast","tag-the-toll","tag-the-toyota-hiace","tag-the-vehicles","tag-the-wreckage","tag-the-wrong-side","tag-their-lives","tag-this-crash","tag-this-impact","tag-thursday","tag-wednesday","tag-witnesses-and-first-responders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}