Four dead, five injured in minivan crash near NSW border

Four people have been killed and five people seriously injured after a minivan rolled off a road and crashed into a tree in northern Victoria.

Police say nine people were in the vehicle when the driver lost control on Monday afternoon. Three children have been airlifted to hospital.

The crash on Chapel Road in Muckatah – about 10 kilometres south of Cobram – about 5pm will be investigated by major collision detectives. On Monday evening, the road remained closed.

The ages of the four dead people are not yet known. The remaining five others were all seriously injured.

Ambulance paramedics confirmed they airlifted a teenage girl to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and two other children to the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Another teenage girl was transported by road ambulance to hospital in Shepparton, and a man is expected to be airlifted to hospital in an ambulance aircraft.

Anyone who witnessed the crash, has CCTV or dashcam footage, or anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online.

Julie Ballard, a resident of nearby Katamatite, said Chapel Road had been the site of a number of crashes in recent years.

“I’m not sure why, it’s not an especially dangerous road – most of it is sealed, there aren’t many trees,” she said. “When I saw the news I just thought, ‘Oh, another one?’”

Kim Clarke, who lives on Chapel Road, said police had told residents not to go near the crash site because no one should have to see the scene.

She said she knew something had happened after hearing a noise around 5pm, before a police car and then an ambulance came screaming down the road.

“We just feel for the families, we thought they [the occupants] were fruit pickers to start with. There are a few orchards around here and it’s peach season.”

Clarke said Chapel Road was one lane in each direction with a speed limit of 100. She said police had told her husband that the road likely would not reopen until Tuesday afternoon.

The crash was the second in three years in the Moira Shire local government area where a road crash resulted in multiple deaths.

In April 2023, five people were killed when their Nissan Navara was hit by another vehicle in Strathmerton, west of Cobram. In January, a driver was jailed for 5½ years after pleading guilty to five charges of dangerous driving causing death.

The minivan crash in Muckatah was the second fatal incident on Victorian roads on Monday. At 7am, a 32-year-old man died after his car crashed into a tree in the Wimmera town of Kaniva, in Victoria’s far north-west.

Victoria’s road toll for 2025 now stands at 279, the same as at this time last year. More than half of these have been deaths on rural roads.

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