A driver who travelled down the wrong side of a northern Tasmanian road before crashing into another vehicle ‘may have been confused’ by signage on the road, a Coroner has ruled.
71-year-old Geraldine May Phillips passed away at the scene of a head-on collision on Westella Drive, adjacent to the Bass Highway, in Ulverstone in April 2022.
In his recently published findings, Coroner Simon Cooper said Phillips was conscious when she was “extracted from her vehicle while still barely alive” but sadly “died during resuscitation efforts in an ambulance at the scene”.
He said Phillips was wearing a seatbelt, driving a roadworthy vehicle and was in the correct lane when she was hit by Donald Lindsay Smith’s Toyota Hilux.
Weather, speed, alcohol, drugs, road surface and weather conditions were all ruled out as crash-related factors in the investigation, which also determined that the Hilux’s un-roadworthy condition, including “at least one defective tire”, did not have anything to do with the crash.
“There is a possibility that Mr Smith was confused by signs at or near the place of the collision, perhaps considering that he was on a dual carriageway,” Coroner Cooper said.
“He is reported to have said as much to a witness at the scene, although he did not say so as part of this investigation, refusing to make any statement to investigators about the circumstances of the crash.”
Following the crash, road signage improvements were made in the area by the Central Coast Council.
“Nonetheless, Mrs Phillips’ death is entirely due to the fact that the vehicle driven by Donald Lindsay Smith was on the wrong side of the road.”
Police charged Smith, a 68-year-old from Queensland, with failing to keep left of the dividing line in relation to the crash.
