Police are investigating a truck and car collision at Beaufort’s outskirts on Tuesday morning that closed the Western Highway for several hours.
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Avoca Leading Senior Constable Trevor Budds said he had yet to speak with the female driver of a Mitsubishi Lancer two-door sedan, which was involved in the collision.
The Beaufort woman, aged in her late 30s or 40s, was airlifted to Melbourne with non-life threatening injuries while two children who were in the car escaped serious injury.
The driver of the semi-trailer truck that was also involved in the incident was unharmed.
Emergency services were called to a collision at the Ballarat-side outskirts of Beaufort on the Western Highway just past the Olinda Street intersection at 8.51am on Tuesday.
Police and VicRoads workers were directing traffic off the highway as far away as the Sunraysia Highway.
Lanes in both directions were closed until 12pm that day.
Lead Sen Cons Budds said police had ruled out drugs, alcohol or speeding as a cause of the crash.
“At this stage we believe the car and the truck were both travelling east. The collision occurred just on the east side of Beaufort in the 80 kilometre per hour zone,” he said.
“She has been hit in the door. We are still investigating but it appears she may have been trying to merge back into the traffic or perform a u-turn. We are not too sure yet.
“I haven’t spoken to the female driver as she was airlifted but speaking to witnesses, that’s what we believe happened. A lack of concentration, possibly.
“We’ll know more when we speak to the car driver.”
The children in the car were taken to Ballarat by ambulance.
Lead Sen Cons Budds said any witnesses to the crash who had not yet spoken to police should call the Avoca station on 5465 3300.