Driver charged over crash that killed four passengers
The driver of a car involved in a horror crash that killed four people near Shepparton has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.
Victoria
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The driver of a car involved in a horror crash that killed four people near Shepparton has been charged with dangerous driving causing death.
Four men were killed instantly after their Peugeot sedan was involved in a high-speed T-bone collision with a Toyota HiLux on January 4.
Police were investigating whether the Peugeot’s driver, Harinder Singh Randhawa, failed to give way to the ute at the intersection of Pine Lodge and Cosgrove-Lemnos roads.
The probe also investigated whether any of Mr Randhawa’s three back seat passengers were wearing seatbelts before they were ejected from the vehicle.
“The driver of the car, a 41-year-old Shepparton man, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries where he remains under police guard,” a Victorian Police spokesperson said.
He has been charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing death and will appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on June 8.
It comes after Harpal Singh was remembered as hardworking and generous person, who always went out of his way to help others.
“[Harpal] was a calm and hardworking guy,” a family spokesman Kamal Dhillon said.
“He was a family man, he had a really strong bond with his nephew and was very generous.”
Mr Singh, a farmer from the Punjab region in India, had previously lived in Shepparton for three months earlier this year. He worked as a labourer while he was living in the regional Victorian town and had only arrived in Shepparton two weeks ago to visit his nephew who lives in the area.
“He came here to visit his nephew and family, he went to the farm to help them,” Mr Dhillon said.
The men in the sedan were farm labourers from India who were heading home after finishing work at a nearby vegetable farm in Katandra West. Happy Singh, who leased the Katandra West vegetable farm and employed the men for the day, told the Herald Sun he was en route to Melbourne to grieve with the labourers’ families on Friday.
Mr Singh’s family members are also travelling to Australia for cremation ceremony which is expected to be held in Fawkner in Melbourne’s north in the coming days.
Shepparton’s Sikh community is reeling in the wake of the horror collision and community leaders said they are struggling to comprehend what transpired only days ago.
“We are just absolutely shocked to hear this news, it’s just so hard to explain,” Guru Nanak Sikh Society of Shepparton secretary Gurmeet Singh said.
“I have never seen a situation like this in the community before.”
Mr Randhawa underwent surgery for a fractured spinal cord, shoulder, and ribs at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Thursday and is now on the road to recovery. The driver of the ute, a 29-year-old Nathalia man has been discharged from Goulburn Valley Health Hospital after was treated for minor injuries resulting from the crash.
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The sister of a man who survived a fatal collision near Shepparton says she was emotional when she discovered her brother was alive.
Harinder Randhawa was driving a Peugeot hatchback when it collided with a Toyota HiLux on Pine Lodge Rd near the intersection of Cosgrove-Lemnos about 4.45pm on Wednesday.
Mr Randhawa was the sole survivor of the car that tragically killed four of his passengers.
His sister Gurpal Kaur told the Herald Sun she hysterically cried when she found out her brother was injured.
“I sat on the side of the road and cried a lot,” she said.
“I’m still shivering now.”
Mr Randhawa underwent surgery on Thursday at the Royal Melbourne Hospital after suffering a fractured spinal cord, shoulder and ribs.
His relation to the other passengers is not yet known.
Ms Kaur lives with Mr Randhawa in Shepparton.
Her brother and some of the other passengers were due to return home to India in two weeks after arriving in Melbourne to work temporarily and visit family.
By Thursday afternoon, investigators were struggling to identify the four men who were not carrying identification documents with them at the time of the crash.
It is understood that two of the deceased men were aged in their 40s.
The driver of the ute, a 29-year-old man from Nathalia, remained at Goulburn Valley Hospital in a stable condition with minor injuries.
It remained unclear what caused the collision, but police were expected to interview both drivers in the coming days.
One line of inquiry is whether the Peugeot failed to give way to the ute.
There are several stop signs ahead of what locals have described as a notorious intersection.
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Road Policing Acting Assistant Commissioner Justin Goldsmith said it was “astonishing” that Mr Randhawa survived at all.
He said it was possible that the men in the Peugeot hatchback were not wearing seatbelts during the crash that has rocked the Shepparton community.
“It’s unfathomable that they would consider getting into the car without a seatbelt,” Mr Goldsmith said.
“The scene out there is devastating — incredibly confronting for even experienced investigators.
“The ripple effect that it has on the community, not just those involved in this, is absolutely enormous.”
Three men in the back of the Peugeot were ejected from the vehicle, killing them at the scene.
Another man in the car’s front passenger seat also died.
Detectives continued their investigation on Thursday, and could be seen laying out markers and taking photographers of the wreckage throughout the day.
The sedan was completely crushed from the collision, the front window was smashed, with the doors detached from their hinges.
A bullbar protecting the ute was split in half while the contents of its trailer were scattered across the pavement.
Tradesmen’s tools, ladders and cans of paint were spread all over the road.
The intersection where the high speed crash occurred will be the main focus of the police investigation.
Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll said the government would work to make the intersection as safe as possible following the crash.
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