Road toll hits 19
A YOUNG Tableland man has become the 19th person to die on Far Northern roads this year when his utility crashed near Walkamin early on Saturday morning.
The man, 22, from Wongabel, south of Atherton, died in a single vehicle crash about 200m west of the intersection of the Kennedy Highway and Hansen Rd about 3.30am.
His name has not yet been released.
He was carrying a motorbike on the tray of his Toyota Landcruiser ute.
"It appears he’s braked heavily then subsequently lost control before leaving the highway," Cairns district crime prevention co-ordinator Cary Coolican said yesterday.
"The vehicle appears to have rolled a number of times and hit an embankment."
Sen-Constable Coolican said the man was discovered by a passing motorist a short way from his vehicle and died before medical help arrived.
The death brings the district’s road toll to 19, two more than at this time last year.
Further south, an elderly man from the Townsville suburb of Condon died and his wife was injured in a two-vehicle smash on the Bruce Highway south of the city just after 2.30am on
Saturday.
Police said the 78-year-old man had attempted to enter the Bruce Highway at Cluden when his vehicle and a 4WD collided.
The man died at the scene and his 74-year-old wife was admitted to Townsville General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The male driver of the 4WD escaped with minor injuries.
In another accident last night, a patient was taken to Cairns Base Hospital with minor injuries after a car crashed into a pole at the corner of Wharf and Sheridan streets about 6.15pm.
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Deadly smash: Police at the scene of Saturday’s crash.
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