2024 Fatalities

[Mr Purple]

I'll wait for any investigation but it is my experience that medical incidents don't commonly contribute to crashes such of these. Especially in a 47 year old.

And if they do it's likely that it's poorly managed diabetes/epilepsy/sleep apnoea and the whole incident is almost invariably easily avoided with a minimum of care or foresight.

There's actually not that many medical incidents that cause drivers to suddenly lose control and they're usually easy to anticipate. Either way with a dead 9yo I'm hoping this is very thoroughly looked into and persecuted as appropriate. That's not acceptable.

[brumby33]

I'll wait for any investigation but it is my experience that medical incidents don't commonly contribute to crashes such of these. Especially in a 47 year old.

And if they do it's likely that it's poorly managed diabetes/epilepsy/sleep apnoea and the whole incident is almost invariably easily avoided with a minimum of care or foresight.

There's actually not that many medical incidents that cause drivers to suddenly lose control and they're usually easy to anticipate. Either way with a dead 9yo I'm hoping this is very thoroughly looked into and persecuted as appropriate. That's not acceptable.

I wouldn't be so sure of that, I lost 2 work colleagues recently to brain tumours under the age of 50 and one was a really good mate of mine, he left behind a lovely wife and 2 young boys both in Primary school, he was a fairly fit bloke going to many cross fitness comps in the Hunter area. The other guys was a single fella, obese and luckily for the public he was driving home with another driver as a passenger, driving along a dual laned road, he simply passed out behind the wheel at 80kph, I know both guys involved, the passenger elbowed the driver to wake him up and he was only partly responsive, grabbed the wheel and used the handbrake to eventually come to a stop then promptly called the Ambulance. It was discovered he had a brain tumour that caused the seizure, had a brain operation but he was gone within 2 years at 48yrs of age, so yes, it can happen, there's all sorts of reasons people can go into seizures but it's changes to the brain is mostly the case, it can hit in an instant. My friend who was 46 at the time, took his family to Bunnings to get stuff for the house, he was only there for a short time when he had a seizure, he never had one before so was unaware anything sinister was happening from within.

[Mr Purple]

It does happen, which is why a reserve judgement until an inquest.

However it's far more common for an erratic driver to be a result of a mobile phone, drugs, alcohol or just sheer incompetence.

'When you hear hooves don't think of zebras'. I've seen the results of hundreds of car crashes in my career, and I can only recall one that was the result of a medical event (seizure due to undiagnosed brain tumour as above).

[AdelaidePeter]

Sadly there have been two cyclist fatalities in SA in the last few days.

A 65 year old cyclist crashed in the Barossa. Reports say no other vehicle was involved, and another report (paywalled) said he was taking part in an event of some sort. https://www.police.sa.gov.au/sa-police- ... wland-flat

Then yesterday (Nov 12) a 43 year old cyclist was hit by a van and killed on the Duke's Highway (the Adelaide-Melbourne route). https://www.police.sa.gov.au/sa-police- ... south-east . Judging by GSV, there is plenty of room on that stretch of road so that is so tragic and unnecessary.

RIP to both cyclists and condolences to those who knew them