JUST SO TRAGIC

Residents tell of carnage on their doorstep

SHOCKED New Town residents have described their horror after a woman was fatally injured outside their homes in a crash where two men fled the scene.

Jessica Csendes, above, raced outside her house and was confronted by the carnage left when a grey Mitsubishi, inset, collided with a blue Commodore on the corner of Roope and Pirie streets.

“I heard someone say ‘they’re running away they’re running away’,” she said.

“It’s just very sad to think it’s happened in our neighbourhood.”

Detectives are now investigating whether the driver and his offsider, who left the dying woman in her car and fled, were involved in criminal activity just before the collision.

I heard someone say: ‘they’re running away, they’re running away’

POLICE are hunting for a fleeing driver who they hold responsible for killing a woman on her way home from a shopping excursion.

Detectives are investigating whether the driver and his offsider, who left the dying woman in her car and fled while reportedly obscuring their faces, were involved in criminal activity just before the collision in New Town on Thursday night.

Senior Constable Kelly Cordwell said police were determined to track them down.

“We’re just interested in finding the person responsible for taking this lady’s life,” she said yesterday. “They know who they are.” Asked whether there were people out there who knew the offenders’ identities, she said: “Of course they would.”

“Do the right thing by this lady, who was doing nothing wrong, and her family, who are grieving the loss of their loved one this morning. Please come forward,” she said.

Just after 9pm on Thursday, residents in Pirie St were rocked by what they said sounded like an explosion.

The woman, 42, and two friends were driving home from Kmart in a blue Holden Commodore when it was hit by a grey Mitsubishi Magna which had failed to stop at the intersection on Roope St.

The cars spiralled across the road into a resident’s fence, leaving the woman trapped in the mangled Commodore.

Resident Nicolai Meinke, a paramedic student, launched into action.

“I heard what sounded like an explosion,” he told the Mercury, and raced outside to see “two cars collapsed in on each other pushed into our fence”. He called the police. Mr Meinke said the driver of the Magna was wearing what looked “like a face mask”.

“All I could see was his eyes. And he just took off up the street,” he said.

The trainee paramedic tried to help the dying woman.

“I found out what her name was and I was just trying to get her attention but wasn’t getting anywhere,” he said.

“She was unresponsive, she wouldn’t respond to me at all. I was trying to do the best I could.”

Pirie St resident Jessica Csendes thought the cars had crashed into her front yard - “it was that loud” - and she raced outside.

“I heard someone say ‘they’re running away, they’re running away’,” she said.

“They were saying there’s a girl inside the car and she didn’t look well and then I rang the police.

“I didn’t want to see, I found it very distressing. It’s just very sad to think it’s happened in our neighbourhood.”

Emergency services workers were on the scene in minutes. They spent the next hour cutting the woman from the vehicle.

She was rushed to hospital but suffered a cardiac arrest on the way and died.

The Mercury has chosen not to release the victim’s name at the request of the dead woman’s mother.

The Commodore’s frontseat passenger, a 40-year-old

Do the right thing by this lady, who was doing nothing wrong, and her family, who are grieving the loss of their loved one this morning. Please come forward

Senior Constable KELLY CORDWELL

man, was taken to hospital with abdominal injuries.

Snr Constable Cordwell delivered the horrific news to the woman’s mother, who is in New South Wales, yesterday afternoon.

“It’s not real [to her] at this point in time,” she said.

She said the offenders would have significant injuries from the crash.

“If you know somebody who has a head injury, particularly around the forehead area this morning, or a chest injury that seems to be a little bit suspicious please contact us,” she said.

“The identity of these people is our primary concern at this stage.”

Snr Constable Cordwell said the Magna had not been reported stolen and they were following a specific line of inquiry to track down its occupants.

Forensic officers conducted an examination of the Magna.

Anybody who saw a grey Magna in the vicinity before to the crash is asked to contact police. Police are also seeking any CCTV footage which may assist.

The occupants of the Magna were seen with two backpacks, one red and the other black, and heading in the direction of Swanston St.