Court documents show the man charged over a crash that claimed the lives of five people in country Victoria on Thursday was speaking with police just three minutes before the crash.
Documents tendered to Shepparton Magistrates Court on Friday reveal Christopher Dillon Joannidis, 29, was allegedly pulled over for speeding in his white Mercedes Benz on Labuan road at Strathmerton in northern Victoria, and allegedly returned a positive reading for cannabis on a preliminary test.
A follow-up test was negative and he was released at 2:18pm.
Police have told the court that three minutes later, his car slammed into a Nissan Navara ute with five people onboard.
They were all killed instantly when their ute hit a B-double tanker.
A dog in the Navara also died.
Speaking Friday afternoon, Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said officers had issued Mr Joannidis with an infringement notice for allegedly travelling at 118 kilometres per hour in a 100kph zone at about 1:40pm.
"That driver left the scene and a short time later was involved in a collision with a Nissan Navara that was travelling on the Murray Valley Highway," Assistant Commissioner Weir alleged.
"The Nissan spun and was then involved in a collision with a fully-loaded B-Double milk tanker."
Mr Joannidis and his girlfriend, a 20-year-old woman from Melbourne's south-east, were reportedly on their way to a wedding.
He was granted bail and will return to court on September 19.
Magistrate Simon Zebrowski set a range of bail conditions including surrendering all travel documents and refraining from driving.
"The worst thing you can do is drive a motor vehicle … it would be extraordinarily unwise," Magistrate Zebrowski said.
'Confronting' scene for responders
The driver of the Nissan was a woman in her 60s, believed to be local.
The passengers, a man and three women aged between 23 and 30 years old, are believed to be visiting from Asian countries, working on a local farm.
Police believe the female driver was their employer.
The Assistant Commissioner thanked all first responders who worked through the night at the "terribly confronting and tragic scene".
"Such was the nature of the damage we've had to call disaster victim identification experts, and our search and rescue team, to try and investigate how many people were involved," he said.
"That's why I can only tell you, 24 hours later, how many people were involved."
Assistant Commissioner Weir said it was Victoria's deadliest road crash in more than a decade.
"I've seen the vision from the truck. It is horrific."
He said the driver of the ute was "probably doing something she'd done so many times — driving people to work or back to where they live".
"And it's all over, and that's the frustration of it, that such a small lack of attention can have such devastating effects."
Council aware of intersection's dangers
Moira Shire Council in northern Victorian says it is aware of long-held safety concerns about a stretch of road where the five people died in yesterday's crash.
Acting CEO Joshua Lewis said the community was devastated and his thoughts went out to everyone affected by the tragedy.
"The community reels from these sorts of incidents for a very, very long period of time. It's actually very difficult for us to quantify that. We know it's huge."
Mr Lewis said council had previously raised concerns about the intersection.
"We've certainly been actively working with the Department of Transport and Planning in advocating for this particular intersection," he said.
History of tragedy
There were two fatal crashes on the same section of highway in 2022, and a third a short distance to the south.
A man died and two police officers were seriously injured at the same spot on the highway in February last year.
Four farm workers died in an accident where Labuan Rd becomes Pine Lodge North Rd in January.
And a woman died in a two-car collision on Labuan Rd on December 31 last year, less than 2 kilometres from the Murray Valley Highway.
Mr Lewis said he understood the transport department had made improvements at the site, including signage, line marking, and delineation.
"But it's clear that they've proved ineffective in preventing this most recent crash," he said.
"And therefore we need to go back, in conjunction with the Department of Transport and Planning, who will be taking the lead, in exploring all possible options."
The transport department has been approached for comment.
Do maps steer drivers to dangerous road?
The shire's acting CEO said navigation aids, such as satellite navigation maps on smart phones, were known to send drivers to Labuan Road as a short cut.
The same concern was echoed in discussions in a Cobram community group on social media in the wake of the crash.
"It is a lower standard road, and there are far safer avenues for people to travel from the south to the north." Mr Lewis said.
