WOMAN KILLED IN OTWAYS CAR PLUNGE

A WOMAN is dead after the vehicle she was travelling in plunged 10m down an embankment and hit a tree in the Otway Ranges.

Police said the station wagon was travelling south along Colac-Lavers Hill Rd in Kawarren at 4.10pm on Saturday, when the crash happened.

The passenger, believed to be in her 60s, died at the scene.

Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said emergency services spent more than an hour rescuing the driver, a man in his 60s, from the wreck.

‘‘It was a mechanical entrap- ment so they had to cut the car open to free him,’’ he said.

The driver suffered only minor injuries and was not admitted to hospital.

Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives are looking at the circumstances surrounding the crash.

The fatality was one of 16 on Victorian roads so far this month, which prompted the state’s top traffic cop, Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill, to warn Victorians to take extra care on the roads.

‘‘ We’re only two months away from Christmas and it is devastating that these 16 families won’t get to spend that time with their loved one,’’ he said.

‘‘We can speak about these 16 people dying but it’s not just a figure, it’s 16 people missing from someone’s life forever.’’

An 88-year-old man and a newborn baby girl have been among those killed so far on the roads in October.