Removalist describes eerie scene at Wooramel double fatal crash scene after waiting 18 hours for clearance

A witness of a double fatal truck collision has spoken out describing the eerie scene after vehicles were held up about a day waiting for the scene to be cleared. About 1am on Sunday, December 4, a Mercedes Benz truck driver and his passenger died in a head-on collision involving a DAF truck towing two trailers on North West Coastal Highway, 120km south of Carnarvon. The 36-year-old driver of the DAF truck was taken to Carnarvon Health Campus with minor injuries. The crash occurred 30km south of Wooramel Roadhouse, with authorities closing North West Coast Highway in both directions while the scene was cleared. Adlam Transport removalist Scott Kendal said he was travelling north when he was stopped for 12 hours after the incident at Overlander Roadhouse, 79km from the crash scene. He waited about 18 hours for the horrific crash scene to be cleared, while he was told other truck drivers waited up to 24 hours. “They brought the truck that had the fatalities through on the back of a trailer,” he said. “Most people in the Overlander got to unfortunately witness that, which for a big truck it was pretty damaged. “It was a head-on collision on a very narrow road and both trucks were road trains, so they both had two trailers scattered all over the road. “They had to get big cranes in to be able to lift the trucks and take them away.” Mr Kendal said there were hundreds of vehicles waiting for the Wooramel scene to be cleared, and when he passed through Billabong Roadhouse there was more than 40 heavy haulage vehicles there. “There was about 40-50 trucks, 25-30 caravans, 30-40 cars and two coach busses at Wooramel,” he said. Mr Kendall said one of the tankers was carrying a black bitumen, or oil he noticed along the road when he drove back during the night. “The drain, the gutter down the side of the road for about 100km still has that black, tar look to it. It was quite spooky driving back through it,” he said. “As a truck driver, you don’t realise how narrow the road is there, it doesn’t have a very wide shoulder on it.” Major crash confirmed the investigation was ongoing and no charges were laid.