Three people have been killed in three separate crashes in less than an hour across South Australia on Wednesday, stretching Major Crash investigators from the Murraylands to the Fleurieu Peninsula and Adelaide's north.
Motorcyclist dies in building fire
About 9am, a rider was killed when his BMW motorcycle crashed into a building at a popular winery at Langhorne Creek and caught fire. The 43-year-old man from Nangkita died at the scene. Langhorne Creek Road remained closed for several hours while investigators examined the site.
Pedestrian struck by garbage truck
Around 9.45am, an Adelaide woman was hit and killed by a garbage truck while walking to a bus stop in the city's northern suburbs. The pedestrian has been identified as Mel Whiteford-Hall, 23, who was just metres from her home at Modbury en route to work in the city's East End. Police say the 48-year-old truck driver from Prospect was not physically injured. He has been reported for careless driving causing death, issued with an instant loss of licence, and will be summonsed to appear in court at a later date.
Emergency Services Minister Rhiannon Pearce said: “My heart goes out not only to the families impacted, the individuals impacted, and the communities, but the first responders that go out to attend to these scenarios as well.”
Driver dies in fiery collision
As police and emergency services were responding to that incident, a man was killed when his Hyundai sedan and a road train carrying hay collided on the Dukes Highway at Elwomple, south of Tailem Bend, about 9.50am. Police said both the car and truck “caught fire on impact”, with CFS crews spending several hours fighting the blaze as it continued to burn. The driver of the Hyundai, a man from the Adelaide suburb of Paradise, died at the scene while the truck driver escaped injury. Dukes Highway was closed between Mallee Highway and Tynan Road for most of Wednesday.
The three deaths take the state's road toll to 50. Major Crash investigators are probing all three incidents.
