DANGER ZONE
Two men hospitalised after ‘high-speed’ crash
POLICE were left to pick up hundreds of pieces of wreckage, spread over dozens of metres, from a horror crash in Palmerston.
Two men are lucky to be alive yesterday after the crash left the wheels about 10m from the body of the car on Chung Wah Tce.
The pair were allegedly speeding along the arterial road at about 12.45am when they lost control and slammed into a tree.
The wreckage from the Toyota Corolla was spread over a large area, including into the bushes on the other side of the two-lane road.
Darwin Traffic Operations Acting Senior Sergeant Mark Casey said this indicated the crash was at a high speed.
“That’s typically what we see in high-speed crashes, debris will get spread over a large area,” he said.
“It doesn’t really affect the investigation but it’s certainly taken into account.”
The two men were taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital with major injuries. The driver remains under police guard.
Sgt Casey said police were getting sick of dealing with avoidable crashes.
“We really don’t want to go to these crashes,” he said.
“It’s quite frustrating trying to explain to the family why their loved one has died, (it) has a ripple effect throughout the community and we’d rather not do it.
“If people just take a little bit of care, think about what they’re doing before they do it, we wouldn’t need to be here.”
The crash was not the only incident on Territory roads on Friday night.
Just 15 minutes earlier, a 27year-old woman was crossing Smith St in the Darwin CBD when she was hit and knocked down.
The white Nissan X-Trail that hit her continued driving, however the driver handed himself into police later yesterday morning.
“We’ve done some really hard work this morning. We’ve identified the vehicle, we’ve located the vehicle and we’ve seized it,” Sgt Casey said.
“We’ve identified some licenced premises that may have some CCTV footage that is relevant.”
It is understood the accident caused the West Australian numberplates from the vehicle to fall from the car and they remained at the scene.
NT Police also woke to find a crash scene outside their CBD offices further down Smith St, however there was little information available about the crash.
The front left side of a white ute was damaged, as was an orange Holden, which had been pushed over the footpath and into the garden of the Darwin Uniting Church.