A young Hastings man who left New Zealand for Australia earlier this year was one of three people killed in a crash near Perth on Friday night.
Luke James Adams, 20, was a passenger in a sedan overtaking a truck and trailer road-train when the car collided with an oncoming vehicle on the Great Eastern Highway, east of Southern Cross, a wheatbelt town between Perth and Kalgoorlie.
The crash also killed the 23-year-old driver, and the 38-year-old driver of the oncoming mini-bus.
Ten people were flown by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to hospital in Perth, including a 25-year-old passenger in the car, and four pre-schoolers and a man and woman in their 60s from the van. All but one were later reported to be seriously hurt.
A paramedic said the stretch of highway had a 110kmh speed limit, and there appeared to have been no sign of braking.
Mr Adams, who went to Karamu High School and whose father works for fruit packers Crasborn, had worked as a butcher in Hastings.
In March last year he won a demolition derby at the Meeanee speedway, in a car he got from elder brother Anthony, who had driven the 1300cc Toyota in two previous derbies.
- Hawke's Bay Today
