By Ann Marie Angebrandt
A POINT Cook teenager is clinging to life and two Geelong men are dead after a high-speed crash on the Maltby Bypass early last Friday morning.
Police say the Point Cook P-plater drove his white Commodore the wrong way down the Princes Freeway from the Forsyth Rd ramp before colliding head-on about 2.45am with the blue Statesman of Paul Stuart, 31, of Corio, and his passenger, Damien Willey, 29, of Waurn Ponds, some four kilometres later.
Sergeant Peter Bellion, of the police major collisions unit, said a police investigation will determine whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash, or if the 19-year-old Point Cook man was on a suicide mission.
He remains in a critical condition with head and upper body injuries after being flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Police have still not released his name.
Sgt Bellion said the two men who were killed were on their way to work at Costa Logistics in Fitzgerald Rd, Laverton North. He said they would not have stood a chance.
Sgt Bellion said that Mr Stuart was trying to overtake a truck and had just moved to the centre lane when he was confronted by the other vehicle coming towards.
“His forward vision would have been limited and he would have had very little time to react,” he said.
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“They were both travelling about 100km/h so that’s a 200km/h impact.”
Only the Point Cook man’s vehicle was fitted with airbags.
Lieutenant Robert Mitchell, of the Werribee fire brigade, was among the first of five local emergency service teams on the scene.
The Point Cook man and Mr Willey were still alive, but unconscious. Mr Stuart was pronounced dead at the scene.
The brigade took about 15 minutes to remove the Point Cook man from his mangled wreckage using its “jaws of life” rescue equipment, before an air ambulance rushed him to hospital, he said.
Mr Willey died while they frantically worked to remove him next from the passenger side of the other vehicle.
“The paramedics told us who to get out first,” he said.
“It tested our resources but we did our best.”
Lt Mitchell said it was the worst crash he had seen in 16 years.
“They were both travelling at a fair speed. It’s quite possible the whole thing could have caught fire, but it’s fortunate it didn’t.”
Melbourne-bound lanes of the Princes Fwy were closed for about six hours and traffic was diverted through Werribee.
Police are looking for witnesses to the incident.
Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
