SYDNEY, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Two people have died and a third has been flown to hospital following a crash northwest of Melbourne that takes the 48-hour road death toll in the Australian state of Victoria to eight.
Victoria Police said in a statement that two cars collided on a highway in Eganstown, about 90 km northwest of Melbourne, shortly before midday local time on Monday.
The two occupants of one vehicle died at the scene, and the sole occupant of the other vehicle was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries.
It marked the seventh and eighth deaths in six separate crashes on roads in the southeastern state in a 48-hour span since Saturday afternoon.
Earlier on Monday, a 26-year-old male was found deceased inside a vehicle that had crashed in Swan Hill, 300 km northwest of Melbourne, at about 7 a.m.
A 46-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were killed when two vehicles collided head-on in Melbourne's southeast suburbs shortly before 6 a.m.
The incidents on Monday followed the deaths of a 49-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man in separate collisions in Victoria on Sunday afternoon and the death of a 53-year-old male on Saturday after his motorcycle collided with a car.
The 49-year-old woman's husband and two children were hospitalized with serious injuries, as was another 58-year-old woman. The passenger on the 53-year-old man's motorcycle was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
In a seventh incident, a male pedestrian was hospitalized with critical injuries after being struck by a vehicle in Melbourne's western suburbs about 8:20 a.m. on Monday.
Australia's annual National Road Safety Week began on Sunday, with additional police deployed across the country to crack down on speeding and dangerous driving.
"It is beyond intolerable that so many lives continue to be lost or traumatised on our roads each year. We must recognise nearly all these crashes occur in circumstances that are completely avoidable. It's imperative that we unite to make our roads safer, as every death or serious injury is one too many," Peter Frazer, founder of National Road Safety Week and president of the Safer Australian Roads and Highways Group, said in a statement.
According to the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, there had been 106 deaths on the state's roads in 2025 as of Sunday, up from 101 at the same point in 2024. ■
