Numurkah Leader
Tragedy on GV Highway
1 min read

THE Goulburn Valley Highway, between Gillespies Rd and Wunghnu Rd, was the scene of a fatal accident on Friday afternoon, in which two people died and three others were injured.

The two car collision, between a Holden Commodore and a Kia, occurred at 2.40pm, around the same time as a brief, localised hail storm swept through the area.

The two people who died at the scene, both of whom were passengers in the Commodore, were 23 year-old Strathmerton woman Eloise Rigby, and her partner Adam Boland, aged 39, from Shepparton.

Ms Rigby’s four year-old niece, who was in the back seat of the Commodore, suffered serious injuries and had to be extricated from the vehicle by  SES volunteers before being airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital. She remains in RCH in a stable condition. 

The driver of the Commodore, a 28 year-old Katunga woman who is the mother of the injured child, was taken to GV Health with minor injuries and has since been discharged.

The driver of the Kia, a 46 year-old Numurkah woman, was also taken to GV Health with minor injuries. 

Police said the incident occurred when the north-bound commodore veered into the south bound lane into oncoming traffic, and collided with the Kia.

Senior Sergeant Steven Hill from the Major Collision Investigation Unit, which is investigating the incident, told the Leader that the weather is one of the possible contributing factors they are investigating.

“We are appealing for anybody who witnessed the collision, saw the Commodore driving north between 2.30 and 2.40pm, or has dash-cam footage of, or information regarding, the vehicle, road or weather at around that time to contact Crimestoppers,” he said.

The accident scene was attended by the Numurkah SES unit as well as CFA brigades from Wunghnu, Numurkah and Tallygaroopna, as well as Numurkah police and Cobram Highway Patrol units, and ambulances from Numurkah and Shepparton.

The highway was closed between Gillespies Rd and Wunghnu Rd, with traffic diverted onto other routes, until the early hours of Saturday morning. 

Police are yet to speak to the driver of the Commodore.