Two young tradesmen heading home from a shift at a West Coast mine died when their ute slid on black ice and crossed into the path of an oncoming vehicle, a Tasmanian coroner has found.
24-year-old David Kleyn and Luke Corcoran, 27, were killed instantly in the head-on crash on the Murchison Highway at Guildford on July 5, 2024.
Kleyn was driving the Mazda ute and Corcoran was in the passenger seat.
Both worked for Creative Concreting and Construction and had just finished a shift at the Renison mine.
Coroner Olivia McTaggart found icy road conditions were the main cause of the crash.
“… I find that the predominant factor in the crash was the icy and slippery road conditions which caused Mr Kleyn to lose control of the vehicle,” she said.
The crash happened during an “unprecedented” cold snap, the coroner said, with multiple weather warnings in place for hazardous driving conditions.
The air temperature at the scene was around two degrees and the road was in shadow from surrounding trees.
Friction testing the next day showed the surface was so slippery that a tyre would slide on its own after an initial push.
Dashcam footage from a vehicle behind the Mazda showed it slid sideways into the oncoming lane, where it struck a Toyota Hilux towing a trailer.
The Toyota driver survived with non-life-threatening injuries.
Both vehicles were travelling well below the 100km/h speed limit. The Mazda was doing about 80km/h and the Toyota about 64km/h.
Neither driver was distracted and both vehicles were mechanically sound.
McTaggart said the “tragic event” was a warning to all motorists.
“Although Mr Kleyn was driving in a responsible manner and below the speed limit, the speed was likely still excessive for the road conditions,” she said.
“This case highlights the need for extreme care by motorists when encountering hazardous driving conditions.”
