At least five calls were made to emergency services warning of a driver on the wrong side of the Princes Freeway before a fatal crash near Geelong in December 2012, a coroner has been told. The driver, Sarah Dale, 32, was recorded driving at 160 kilometres per hour on the wrong side of the road at Lara before her car collided with another vehicle carrying four young people returning from a night out.
The crash killed five people, including Dale and the four occupants of the other car: Casey Ann Valetic, 24, Nathan Grant Kerr, 23, Melissa Patricia Parry, 23, and Bradley Anthony Dickson, 23. A blood-alcohol test revealed Dale had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21, more than four times the legal limit.
John Heron was the first to call triple-0 after seeing a car driving towards him on the wrong side of the road just after midnight. The court heard that emergency call operators tried to pass his message to local police, but the call went unanswered. It was later dismissed because Heron could not provide a description of the car or an exact location.
Several more witnesses called emergency services before police were dispatched. A relative of victim Paul Dickson criticized police for not following up the initial phone call, saying 'it just doesn't seem right'.
The court also heard that VicRoads had investigated measures to prevent wrong-way driving, including automated emergency hazard signs, live CCTV, and permanent wrong-way spikes on freeway entrances and exits. However, a report prepared for the coroner found those options were not practical, noting that there were an average of two wrong-way driving incidents per year in Victoria, most without injury.
Coroner Ann McGarvie will deliver her findings at a later date.
