Devastating news.
A pedestrian has been struck and killed by a garbage truck as she crossed the road in Melbourne’s CBD.
Police said the 24-year-old woman was crossing near the intersection of Spencer and Collins streets near Southern Cross railway station at 6:15am.
Sergeant Mark Rose said the woman appeared to be in a hurry and was running through a flashing red pedestrian light when she was struck.
“It appears she was running, has cut the corner against the red man, entering the crossing and has tripped,” he said.
“The truck has turned, not seeing her, and has run her over.”
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A witness tried to revive the woman using CPR but she died at the scene.
Sergeant Rose said he believed the woman was on her way to work.
Officers are investigating if she was wearing headphones when she was struck.
The garbage truck driver, aged in his 40s, was questioned at the scene.
“He’s in a great amount of shock at the moment, he can’t believe what has happened,” Sergeant Rose said.
Police said it appeared to be an unfortunate reminder of the “ultimate sacrifice” pedestrians can pay by disobeying road rules.
Earlier, a man was killed when he was struck by a truck on Geelong Road at Brooklyn, in Melbourne’s west, just before 2:00am.
Police said he was wearing dark clothing at the time.
This article was originally published by the ABC here. It has been republished with full permissions.
Top Comments
I feel so awful for everyone involved. I hope the truck driver receives the support he needs in dealing with this.
My father was a train driver and many years ago someone committed suicide by jumping in front of the train he was driving. To this day he still blames himself. He couldn't bring himself to drive a train again after that.
I think this highlights how crappy the intersections in Melbourne are. It's really stupid and confusing to have a green light for turning cars, but actually it's not a real green light because they have to look for and give way to pedestrians crossing right in their driving path. It's a really dumb system. I'm not sure why the intersections in Melbourne don't just have green arrows for turning instead. It would be a lot safer.