Fatal crash: ‘Heroic efforts’ by passers-by saved two lives in fiery single vechicle rollover

‘HEROIC efforts’ from passers-by saved the lives of two people but a third tragically died after the car they were travelling in rolled, hit a tree and burst into flames

A person has died after their car burst into flames after a single vehicle rollover south of Katherine

UPDATED: “Heroic efforts” from passers-by saved the lives of two people but a third died after the car they were travelling in rolled, hit a tree and burst into flames about 40km south of Katherine.

NT Police Major Crash Investigations Detective Senior Sergeant Brendan Lindner said a number of passers-by stopped to help after the crash on the Stuart Hwy on Friday night.

“About half a dozen people stopped to assist to extricate the people from the car which was on its side against a tree,” he said.

“They managed to extricate two people from the car who survived the crash.

“Tragically the third person was unable to be removed from the vehicle despite the heroic efforts … and died at the scene.

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“The car was extensively on fire. Despite that the passers-by actually used their own vehicle to right the vehicle as the deceased was trapped on the under side of the car.

“We saw some incredibly brave action by the passers-by; they managed to rescue two survivors.”

A man and a woman, both aged 48 and believed to live in the Katherine region, remain in hospital but it is believed their injuries are non-life threatening.

“Alcohol’s quite possibly involved but that will be confirmed … in due course,” Sergeant Lindner said.

He said there had been a number of concerning incidents on the roads since the borders reopened last weekend.

“It’s been a particularly bad week on roads across the Territory … there’s been 21 crashes involving serious injuries or death in one week. Eight of those involved vehicles rolling over,” he said.

“We continue to see a certain percentage of Territorians disobey the road rules and place themselves and others at risk on the roads, so we urge Territorians to drive safely on the roads, expect more people on the roads, tourists on the roads

EARLIER: A person has died after their car burst into flames in a single vehicle rollover south of Katherine just before midnight on Friday night.

NT Police Watch Vicki Koum said two other occupants of the car were lucky to escape the inferno.

“We had a fatal collision a few kilometres south of Katherine, that was just before midnight. It was a single vehicle rollover,” she said.

“A single vehicle rollover, which caught on fire as well so as far as we know there’s one (fatality).

“I don’t have a status on the nature on the injuries of the other two but they are not life threatening.”

Ms Koum said police were still trying to establish exactly what happened, with investigations continuing.

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“Major Crash investigations are heading out this morning so they are just trying to establish the circumstances but basically it’s a single vehicle rollover, three occupants, one person is the deceased,” she said.

“The cause and contributing factors are under investigation.”

person deceased.