Man airlifted to Melbourne hospital in third serious crash in 24-hours

The most recent incident was a single-vehicle crash on Hirths Road in Foxhow, on Monday, November 20, 2023, just before 10am.

A police spokesperson said the vehicle, a single-cab utility left the road and ended up in a drain.

They said the occupant, a 50-year-old man, may not have been wearing a seat belt.

The police spokesman said the man had suffered pelvic and leg injuries.

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said the man was flown to The Royal Melbourne Hospital.

An SES spokesman said volunteers from the Lismore unit removed the roof of the vehicle to extricate a patient.

"Once the patient was extricated the SES volunteers worked with paramedics to transport the patient from the incident to an ambulance in a waiting area," the SES spokesman said.

It was the second serious crash in the south-west in a matter of hours, after a car and truck crashed on the Cobden-Warrnambool Road, west of Naringal, just before 7am.

It was also less than 24-hours after a 20-year-old British woman, who later died, was travelling in a car that crashed into a tree at Winnap, about 50 kilometres north-west of Portland.

Her front seat passenger, a 26-year-old British man, sustained minor injuries and was transported via road ambulance to the Mount Gambier hospital.

The other passenger, a man in his 20s, was flown to a Melbourne hospital in a serious but stable condition with lower body injuries.

It is the 17th fatality on south-west roads this year.

The region has not seen such a high toll since 2014.

Warrnambool highway patrol Acting Senior Sergeant Lisa McRae said there were too many fatalities happening on south-west roads.

"It's just truly horrific. Even just having one fatality is too many so it's just devastating for the community and families involved and the first responders," Acting Senior Sergeant McRae said.

She said with the summer tourism season coming up there would be a high influx of holidaymakers on the roads.

Acting Senior Sergeant McRae said it was a timely reminder for motorists to take regular breaks, monitor fatigue, ensure they were not distracted, look out for wildlife coming on the road and stuck to the weather conditions.

Meanwhile, South Australian police have confirmed two people who died in a head-on collision in Bordertown on Saturday, November 18, were from Warrnambool.