NT Police probe moments before tragic Pine Creek crash
The Police Commissioner says ‘nothing’s ruled out’ as investigators and forensics continue to probe what led to a horror highway crash and a family of six killed.
Northern Territory
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The Territory’s top cop says “nothing is ruled out” as police continue to piece together the moments that led to the worst road crash his agency has seen in 16 years.
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said on Tuesday police were still working to formally identify the six lives lost – four of whom were believed to be children.
He also said detectives were considering the involvement of alcohol.
Police have said the Mitsubishi 4WD veered into the path of a three-trailer road train on the 130km/hr stretch of straight highway on Friday afternoon, causing a catastrophic “fireball” to erupt.
All six travelling in the Pajero were killed instantly and two men in the truck were taken to hospital with some injuries.
“We’ll work through the pathways of investigation to understand the why and the identification,” Mr Murphy said.
“We haven’t ruled anything out – we’re looking at fatigue, distraction, the involvement of alcohol.
“While we call it an accident, it’s not really an accident, we refer to it as a crash.
“There’s some sort of element involved that could contribute to that whether it’s a mechanical, it could be road surface, it could be roadway, human.
“So we have to work through that, and we’ve got some disciplined detectives working through all those alternatives at the moment, working with our scientists.”
“Nothing’s ruled out.”
Mr Murphy said it would take until at least Thursday to formally identify the victims.
“Our thoughts are with the family, the community, the first responders and everyone who were involved in you know, ringing it in and all our workforce and our first responders,” he said.
“A very traumatic and distressing and upsetting situation and a loss of young life, too.”
The six people killed were believed to be a family from the Big Rivers region.
Police are continuing to appeal for members of the public to come forward with any information or dashcam footage of the vehicle, a grey Mitsubishi Pajero registered CD56WW.
Originally published as NT Police probe moments before tragic Pine Creek crash
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