NSW Police charge driver after solar panel hits, kills man on Burley Griffin Way in Galong

A Sydney man has been charged over a freak fatality in the state’s south, where police say a solar panel came loose from the portable power station he was towing and hit a driver travelling the opposite way.

Police have charged a 32-year-old man following the fatality. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

A northern beaches man has been charged over a freak fatality in the state’s south, where police say a solar panel came loose from the portable power station he was towing and hit a driver travelling the opposite way.

Emergency services were called to the scene on Burley Griffin Way at Galong, about 50km west of Yass, about 6.20pm on December 8 last year.

Officers were told a 49-year-old Canberra man had been heading east when a solar panel from a portable power station being towed the other way dislodged.

The object penetrated the Canberran’s windscreen and hit him in the head.

He died at the scene before emergency services arrived.

His three female passengers - aged 13, 16 and 48 - escaped physical injury but were taken to Canberra Hospital to be treated for shock.

Police said the 32-year-old male driver of the vehicle towing the portable power station was, meanwhile, uninjured.

He was taken to Harden Hospital for mandatory testing while crash investigation unit officers established a crime scene.

Following an investigation, he was issued a court attendance notice on Monday.

The man, from Church Point on Sydney’s northern beaches, is due to face Young Local Court on April 9, charged with driving an unsafely loaded trailer causing death.