Three members of a family killed when a gumtree fell on their car while travelling through Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges have been identified.
The family, comprised of two women, two men and a child, were driving Sherbrooke Road in Kallista just before 2.30pm on Sunday when the large tree came down on their vehicle.
The car was pushed down a steep embankment, killing husband and wife Swarnjit Singh Grewal and Amandeep Kaur Grewal. Both were aged in their thirties.
Swarnjit and Amandeep had settled in Aintree, in Melbourne’s west, in 2007. Their nephew Ishpreet was on holiday from India. They had gone out for a day’s trip when the accident took place. Sandeep Singh, brother of Amandeep, who is also settled in Melbourne, said Amandeep worked at an aged care centre and Swarnjit was a trucker
Their nephew Ishpreet Singh, 16, Ishpreet Singh, a student of Class XI at a private school in Samana, and his mother Gurmeet Kaur were visiting Australia where his uncle Swaranjit Singh (34) and Amandeep Kaur (32) are based. He was on holiday from India and also died in the crash. Ishpreet was studying in a school here and wanted to shift to Melbourne after Class XII.
The couple’s son Sehaj Singh Grewal was also injured but was released from hospital on Monday night to be cared for by family friends.
Emergency workers had to pull off the car’s roof to rescue the child and the other victim.
“This is one of those incidents where people have been driving along and they actually have done nothing to cause the collision,” Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Libby Murphy told 9News.
“We usually see things like drugs and alcohol involved… but on this occasion it’s just one of those awful things that has ended up in a complete tragedy.”
It is the second time in the past year a fallen tree has killed motorists in the region.
Balkar Singh, a cousin of Ishpreet’s father, said, “Gurmeet Kaur and her son Ishpreet Singh had left India on February 16. On March 8, they had gone to visit a hill station when the accident took place. We have requested the Union Government to help the family in bringing the bodies back home at the earliest.”