Mt Evelyn car crash: Monbulk Rd tree falls on car injuring man in Dandenong Ranges accident
A giant tree has fallen on a tradie’s ute, taking out powerlines as he drove through the Dandenong Ranges. This comes after six people have been killed in similar incidents in the past 18 months.
Outer East
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A tradie is lucky to be alive after a giant tree fell and crushed his ute as he was driving in Mt Evelyn.
The 29-year-old Diamond Creek man was travelling towards the hills town along Monbulk Rd between Clegg and Hereford roads when the enormous tree landed on the bonnet of his car, narrowly missing the ute’s cab.
Mooroolbark Sergeant Graham Rust said police, paramedics, the SES, Mt Evelyn and Wandin CFA volunteers and VicRoads officers were all at the scene after the accident, which happened just after 7am.
“The man had a broken leg and was taken to Maroondah Hospital,” Sgt Rust said.
“The tree came down on the car’s bonnet without impacting the cabin.”
He said the man was driving along Monbulk Rd towards the Mt Evelyn roundabout when the tree fell across both sides of the road, taking out powerlines.
Police closed a section of the road while emergency services tended to the scene.
“He’s extremely lucky to be alive,” Sgt Rust said.
“Obviously it’s no good being involved in a car accident, but to come away only suffering a broken leg.”
“But crikey, if he had only been travelling slightly quicker, it could have had a different outcome.”
This comes after numerous deaths from falling trees in the Yarra Ranges in the past two years.
Six months ago three family members died while driving through Kallista on a Sunday day trip on March 8.
Husband and wife Swarnjit Singh and Amandeep Kaur Grewal died in the crash earlier this year, leaving behind four-year-old son Sehaj Singh Grewal.
The boy’s 16-year-old cousin, Ishpreet Singh, 16, who was on holiday from India, also died in the crash earlier this year.
Last August a woman died when a tree toppled on to her car on the Black Spur section of the Maroondah Highway.
Prior to that a 46-year-old father and his 10-year-old son died near Sherbrooke after a falling tree crushed their car while they were driving along Monbulk Rd, between Kallista-Emerald and Glen Harrow Heights roads on July 14, 2019.
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