Two female Macau residents have died in a deadly crash in Western Australia after the car they were traveling in collided with a bus, causing it to roll before coming to rest on its roof. A third passenger, reportedly aged 23, is injured but in a stable condition.
The accident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. local time on Indian Ocean Drive, a stretch of road 190 kilometers north of Perth, at the turn-off to the Pinnacles rocks formations tourist attraction.
The car with three Macau tourists onboard attempted to turn onto a highway when a bus carrying 34 passengers collided with it at speed.
“The driver of the car died at the scene. The two passengers were conveyed to Royal Perth Hospital by the RAC Rescue Helicopter. One passenger has since died,” police said in a statement, as cited by Chinese state media Xinhua.
Some of the occupants of the bus were treated at the scene for shock and minor injuries.
The Consulate General of China in Perth confirmed yesterday in a statement posted on its website that all three victims are from Macau. Officials have been sent to visit the injured at the hospital, while the Consulate has already contacted the victims’ families to inform them of the incident.
The Consulate pledged to maintain communications with the Australian police, the hospital and the victims’ families, and will provide assistance to the families.
The Macau government had not released a statement on the traffic accident as of press time. Yesterday was a holiday for most public officials.
According to local media reports, Indian Ocean Drive is one of Western Australia’s most notorious stretches of road and has seen several serious crashes since it opened in 2010. Last year two Chinese tourists were killed when the bus they were travelling in was involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle. In 2017, three people, including a six-year-old boy were killed in a similar incident.
“It is a bad intersection […] and of course if you’re impacted from the side it’s always going to be a potentially serious or fatal crash, especially when you’re colliding with such a heavy vehicle,” Western Australia Police Superintendent Domenic Wood told ABC Radio Perth. “[The deceased] are Chinese nationals so it’s very important for us to now take care of their family next of kin and to make sure that all those appropriate notifications are taking place.” DB/AL
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