Patron says tranquil Daylesford pub transformed into ‘war zone’ as five lives lost in crash – best2daynews

Five people remain in hospital, including a boy aged about six who is in a stable condition after suffering broken legs and internal injuries, and an 11-month-old boy who is also stable. The infant’s mother was uninjured and travelled with the child to hospital.

Three adults are also undergoing treatment, including a 35-year-old woman in intensive care.

Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton remained circumspect on Monday about whether the driver was to blame, but said the scene was confronting, chaotic and distressing for first responders.

“You can’t train someone for that,” he said. “It’s one of the most confronting scenes, I am being told, that experienced officers have been to. It may haunt them forever.”

Patton said investigators would stay in Daylesford on Monday to reconstruct the scene and collect CCTV footage of the area.

“Many people will now be questioning the fragility of life and how it can be over so simply,” he said.

“It is an absolute tragedy what has occurred here. We will be doing everything we can to determine what has happened.”

On Monday afternoon, witnesses described the moment the white BMW SUV mounted the kerb from nearby Albert Street and struck patrons. Members of the public rushed to help the injured.

The area in Vincent Street was reopened on Monday afternoon after being closed to traffic in the morning. The white BMW SUV involved was towed away earlier.

More than a dozen bouquets were dropped at the base of a nearby small statue. Mourners and well-wishers laid flowers all morning, wiping away tears and absorbing the tragedy.

At 6pm, almost exactly 24 hours after the incident, the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre will hold a vigil, supported by the local council.

Kimmi Moscicki, seated across the road at the RSL, heard a loud bang as the SUV hit a light pole after it ploughed through the beer garden, leaving demolished picnic tables and four dead in its wake.

The 49-year-old ran to the scene as the white BMW lurched towards the roundabout, before coming to a stop.

“We heard the noise. We heard a bang, looked up, saw the car hit the pole,” she said. “It bounced, bounced and then stopped right there, and all the bodies hit the ground.”

She said locals reacted quickly, many attending to injured patrons to administer first aid.

Moscicki said the driver remained seated in his car, looking straight ahead and not reacting.

“I saw people just trying to just react in emergency mode,” she told said.

On Monday, victims’ footwear lay strewn on the grass.

Witnesses said the car drove at a normal speed down the steep hill next to the pub, before unexpectedly mounting the kerb and striking patrons. Tyre tracks were visible on the grass and road on Monday morning.

Hepburn Shire Mayor Brian Hood said the community would be absolutely devastated.

“This is completely out of the ordinary. So it’ll hit people hard, because it’s happened right in the middle of town at a very popular pub – very popular outdoor dining area for people.

“People are well and truly aware of the area and for something like that to happen so unexpectedly, it’ll have a severe impact on some people.”

He expressed concerns for the mental wellbeing of first responders and the local community.

“I feel for the first responders who … had a very confronting scene to deal with. They did a brilliant job, of course, as did the council’s staff.”

Ambulance Victoria regional director Trevor Weston said local crews were among the first to respond and found venue patrons and the public trying to help the injured. He said the scene was confronting and chaotic.

“I can only imagine what the community would be feeling this morning … a very close-knit community,” he said.

“Some of the initial crews responding were from Daylesford and of course, our thoughts are with them. You never want to respond to anything like this but certainly not in your home town.”

Jenna Acquarola and James Deriu, who were visiting from Melbourne’s northern suburbs, laid flowers at the scene on Monday morning and described a near-miss on Sunday, saying they sat in the beer garden an hour before the crash.

They left the pub and returned for dinner, arriving five minutes after the incident unfolded. They described seeing “white sheets all over the road”.

”We were sitting at this bar here, and people that were first on the scene were traumatised … they were beside themselves, and it didn’t happen to them, they were just watching it,” Deriu said.

Acquarola described eerie scenes in the popular town, which was bustling ahead of the Melbourne Cup public holiday.

“There were people everywhere … standing around just everywhere. Everyone was quiet,” she said.

Thongs and shoes lay among grass scarred with tyre tracks, while jugs remained on picnic tables where people dined on Sunday.

A streetlight toppled in the crash lay on its side, closing the road next to the historic pub, while most businesses remained closed on Monday.

A healthcare worker who asked not to be named said she arrived at the scene to find a pair of children’s shoes strewn a long distance from one another.

“I also saw at least four phones on the road,” she said. “It was so real. So human.”

The head of road policing operations, Superintendent John Fitzpatrick, praised quick-acting onlookers who rushed to help after the crash unfolded.

“No one wants to see what has occurred here,” Fitzpatrick said.

“But it is amazing what people do when others are injured. From what I’ve been told, there were a lot of people who attended to those who have been injured and killed.

“Out of a terrible set of circumstances, people have really done the right thing and tried to help.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his condolences for the crash victims from Beijing, where he will meet the Chinese president on Monday.

“We are all shocked by what happened in Daylesford, and so deeply saddened – for those whose lives were so cruelly cut short, and for those who can never be the same again,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The hearts of all Australians go out to everyone affected, including loved ones, friends, first responders and the Daylesford community.”

Ballarat MP Catherine King also expressed her condolences, saying: “Five people have lost their lives … five families have had their lives changed forever … It will really have shocked a lot of people, and I think we’d really only just be coming to terms to what happened today.”

She said the beer garden would have been a busy scene before the crash, adding that it was set up post-COVID with picnic tables, chairs, and an ice-cream shop.

“It was a really warm night last night. We’ve got a long weekend in Melbourne with the Melbourne Cup, as well as a major tourism destination, [which] was pretty busy last night.”

The crash comes as Victoria’s road toll is at a 15-year-high. The first half of 2023 was the deadliest on the state’s roads in more than a decade and the equal deadliest of the past 18 years.

So far in 2023, 204 people have lost their lives on Victorian roads – a 16.7 per cent increase compared with the same time last year.

With Roy Ward, Benjamin Preiss and Caroline Schelle

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