A 35-year-old woman died after being rushed to hospital following a crash in which the car she was driving crossed the road and collided with a truck.
Police are investigating the crash which happened about 3.20pm yesterday on the Ballina Road near Alstonville.
Upon arrival, officers attached to the Richmond Local Area Command located the crash between a Mazda and a truck.
Police have been told that the Mazda crossed onto the wrong side of the road and crashed into the truck.
When the Westpac Helicopter medical team attended (initially by road ambulance) the driver of the Mazda, a 35-year-old woman, was still trapped in the vehicle
Local emergency rescue services assisted in extracting her while Ambulance Paramedics simultaneously treated the patient.
Although the helicopter landed nearby on the highway, the decision was taken transport the driver, who at that stage was in a critical condition, to Lismore Base Hospital by road ambulance.
She later died from her injuries.
Police said the driver of the truck was not injured and was taken to Lismore Base Hospital for mandatory blood and urine testing.
Operation NorthForce
The accident came just hours after police launched Operation NorthForce, with Traffic and Highway Patrol officers saying are ‘alarmed’ at the rising road toll in the Northern Region and appealing to north coast road users to ‘share the responsibility of ending the tragic loss of life on the roads.’
With the Northern Region road toll current at 105, 25 more than this time last year, assistant commissioner Michael Corboy, acting commander of the state’s Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, said that Operation NorthForce is ‘solely focussed on driving down the road toll across the Northern Region.’
‘In the past 24 hours, four people have died on NSW roads, three of them in one crash in Northern Region. Those crashes impact entire communities and we’re appealing for everyone to share the message of responsible driving and wise judgement on the roads.
‘Given the current road toll in northern NSW, those using the M1 and feeder roads need to take extra care, which is what this joint operation between the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, working with the NSW Centre for Road Safety, will be focussed on.’
‘We know that speeding, drink or drug driving, not wearing a seat belt or proper helmet, driving fatigued for distracted by a mobile phone are all lead to serious injury and fatal crashes on our roads, which is what police will be on our roads enforcing throughout the operation.’
‘We want those that are using northern roads for holiday, work, education, or day to day activities to get to and from their destinations safely, rather than becoming another sad statistic on our roads.’
‘With the support of the NSW Centre for Road Safety, we will have Metropolitan, Operational Support and Taskforce Officers working alongside Northern Traffic and Highway Patrol Command staff, for extended periods, ensuring that those that continue to put themselves, their passengers, and other road users at risk, are identified, prosecuted, and put off our roads.’
Bernard Carlon, executive director of the NSW Centre for Road safety, said speeding is a key concern in the Northern Region contributing to around 44 per cent of fatalities this year, while driver fatigue is the second biggest killer with around 30 per cent of fatalities happening because someone was too tired to drive.
‘High visibility policing is a critical part of our efforts to improve safety across the road network but it is also important for drivers to help us save lives by behaving safely on the road at all times,’ Mr Carlon said.
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