By JESSE GRAHAM
A HOT-ROD owner has been hospitalised and his car destroyed after crashing into a bridge coming into Healesville over the weekend.
At 10.20am on Sunday 10 April, emergency services were called out to a single-car crash on the Maroondah Highway, at the bridge over the Yarra Flats coming into town.
Healesville CFA Captain Graeme Bates said a 62-year-old driver had crashed the hot rod into the railing of the bridge, after seemingly making a turn on the straight stretch of road.
“The cause of it, we don’t know,” Capt Bates said.
“He’s just driving along, and the people following him said he just veered to the right as he went onto the bridge.
“In the middle of the bridge, he’s done a complete right-hand turn into the railings.”
He said the car caught fire after the crash, but the drivers following him helped to extinguish the fire and get the man out of the wrecked car.
The man was taken to The Alfred hospital via MICA (Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance), with several broken bones, including broken ankles, and lacerations.
The hot rod was a “total write off“, according to Capt Bates, with the front-end of the car cut away, so the remains could be removed from the bridge.
Later in the day, emergency services were called out again, to a three-car pile-up on Don Road in Healesville, where a Holden Calais waiting to turn right, and a Mitsubishi Lancer behind it, were hit by a Toyota LandCruiser driving behind them.
Capt Bates said the second crash occurred at 1.30pm on the same day, and that the Lancer was destroyed in the crash, though no-one was injured.
“(They were) just shaken up a bit,“ he said.
