A man in his 40s has died and a 12-year-old boy has been hospitalised after a single-vehicle crash that brought down powerlines south of Hobart on Monday morning.
The crash occurred on Burwood Drive at Blackmans Bay just before 9:00am.
Police say a white Mazda hatchback driven by the Kingston man veered off the road and clipped a power pole before travelling further and hitting a second pole.
“Unfortunately, the male driver, who was a Kingston local … aged in his forties, actually died at the scene,” he said.
The boy, believed to be a family member of the driver, was conscious when emergency services arrived and was taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital with injuries to his arm and chest.
“He was in reasonable spirits I guess you could say, but he had suffered some injuries to his arm and perhaps to his chest area,” Lawson said.
Lawson said the boy had been wearing a school uniform, suggesting he was on his way to school.
The downed powerlines fell across five or six homes, creating what Lawson described as a “complex” scene.
“You can imagine there’s obviously a complex scene there with not only people injured within the vehicle, but also compounded by the fact that power lines were down over the homes,” he said.
The crash initially left around 1,500 customers without power in Blackmans Bay and Huntingfield.
TasNetworks said it had reduced that number to around 320 through switching but warned remaining customers would be off for most of the day because two poles needed replacing.
Lawson said investigators were keeping an open mind about the cause, including the possibility of a medical episode.
Drug and alcohol testing would also be carried out.
The crash was the 17th road fatality in Tasmania this year and the sixth in June alone.
“Kingborough is a very small and tight-knit community, and so this will have enormous ripple effects across the entire community,” Lawson said.
Emergency services have now cleared the scene and investigations are ongoing.
