Koroit’s Sergeant Pat Day said the 64-year-old woman was driving south along the Port Fairy-Penshurst Road (Three Chain Road) in a Nissan utility at 10.55am Saturday when the drama unfolded.

As the woman approached the intersection with Spencer Road, just south of Kirkstall, she noticed a silver Mitsubishi travelling at speed towards the intersection.

“She came to a complete stop about 100 metres from the intersection,” Sergeant Day said.

“The Mitsubishi has gone through the intersection and fishtailed as the driver  attempted to turn left. He’s lost control and the Mitsubishi has slammed into the woman’s ute.”

Sergeant Day said the Mitsubishi was driven by a 25-year-old Chinese national from Blair Athol, a suburb of Adelaide.

“The Mitsubishi has hit the front of the ute and deflected, almost a sideswipe,” he said.

“Both vehicles received minor damage and had to be towed from the accident scene. 

“Fortunately no one was injured.”

The policeman said if the Port Fairy woman had not stopped before the intersection there could have been a fatal accident.

“If she had not been paying attention, he would have T-boned her and that could have been multiple fatalities,” Sergeant Day said.

“There were two other Chinese students, about the same age as the driver, in the Mitsubishi. 

“If he missed the ute, he would have gone into a power pole.

“It was just that the woman was very aware and took appropriate action. If she was not paying such close attention it would have been far worse. 

“It’s a vote of confidence in older drivers.”

Sergeant Day said the Chinese national, driving on a Chinese driver’s licence, was driving to Melbourne.

“He said he was not used to driving country roads. He recognised the give way intersection at the last second, tried to turn left, lost control, fishtailed and collided with the ute,” he said.

“He was given a ticket for careless driving.”