Australian Easter road toll: car accidents claim at least 16 lives over long weekend | Australia news

At least 16 people have lost their lives in accidents on Australian roads over the Easter long weekend.

The toll included the death of a person in a fiery two-vehicle crash in Townsville in Queensland’s far north on Monday. One person died at the scene and two others were taken to hospital in a critical condition after the smash.

Also on Monday, a motorbike rider – a man aged in his 50s – died after a crash involving three vehicles in Perth’s Watermans Bay, Western Australian police said.

In Victoria, a driver is under police guard in hospital and will face court after a single-vehicle rollover in Wangaratta on Sunday night. He has been charged with culpable driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and negligent driving causing serious injury.

Police say one of his three male passengers died after the car overturned and ploughed into a paddock. The other two were airlifted to hospitals in Melbourne with critical injuries.

The devastating Easter toll began with seven deaths on Good Friday, including four adults who were killed in a crash in the New South Wales southern tablelands.

In Tasmania, one woman died and another woman, 26, was charged with dangerous driving causing death after a crash near Copping in the state’s south-east.

Two people were killed in separate incidents within 24 hours in the Northern Territory, including a man involved in a collision between a motorbike and quad bike on the Finke Track near Alice Springs.

The 27-year-old quad bike rider died at the scene, while the 24-year-old male motorbike rider was flown interstate for treatment.

Another man died in the early hours of Saturday in a single-car rollover involving four adults near Hermannsburg, west of Alice Springs.

There were three more fatal accidents in regional areas of WA, South Australia and Tasmania on Easter Sunday, one of which involved a 16-year-old boy.

The teenager was killed early on Sunday, when a Honda station wagon collided with a tree about 75 kilometres south of Adelaide.

Early investigations into the Tasmanian crash indicate a woman, 29, lost control of a Mitsubishi Magna on the East Tamar Highway at Bell Bay on Sunday morning.

A 59-year-old man died in a crash two hours’ south of Perth on Sunday morning when a Mitsubishi Pajero left the Bussell Highway and hit a tree.