“Unfathomable,” one local says, the day after five teenagers lost their lives in a horror single-car crash on the outskirts of Sydney.
The alleged driver of the ute and sole survivor of the crash, an 18-year-old man, has been charged with five counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.
Students, family and friends solemnly visited the Buxton site on Wednesday after the teenagers – aged 14, 15 and 16 – died on Tuesday night. The mourners carried daffodils, cards and stuffed toys. They shook their heads and leaned on the shoulders of others.
Bouquets and police tape surround the tree at the intersection where the driver crashed about 8pm on Tuesday.
Almost 15km down the road, the flags outside the Picton council building fly at half-mast.
The three female passengers – two aged 14 and one 15 – and two male passengers – aged 15 and 16 – who died attended nearby Picton high school.
The car, registered to carry four passengers, was transporting six.
One student, who didn’t wish to use their name, says the incident “doesn’t seem real”.
Another says counsellors have been made available at the school, however she isn’t sure when she’ll be ready to return. “It hasn’t sunk in,” she says. “They were all our friends.”
A local parent, whose son was friends with the teenagers, says in disbelief: “They were beautiful children, all of them, it’s unfathomable.”
Jamie, a father at the school, heard the news on the radio on Wednesday morning but didn’t realise he knew one of the teenagers until his boss was absent from work. His daughter had been killed.
“I’ve known them all my life and been very close, she’s a beautiful girl, absolutely beautiful,” he says. “I didn’t even realise, I didn’t know why nobody was there.”
Jamie says amid the grief one certainty to cling to is that the community will support each other in the days and weeks ahead.
“Out here you’ve got the best community, everyone pulls together, it’s unbelievable,” he says. “They’ll only get tighter, but we’re all still in shock at the moment until we come to terms with what happened. It’s just wrong.”
Murat Dizdar, deputy secretary of the NSW education department, says it is an “extremely distressing and disturbing day” for the school and counsellors are being offered to more than 1,100 students.
“The student body is deeply impacted, this is a very, very tough day for them,” he says.
“We have two separate counselling teams that are onsite at the school, one of those teams is a dedicated expert unit to support staff … that are impacted and feeling distress. These are teacher professionals who have been educating these young people … since year 7.”
Det Insp Jason Hogan tells a press conference on Wednesday the scene was “extremely confronting” for the witnesses who rang triple zero and the next of kin who later arrived onsite.
“It must be extremely traumatic for family, friends, first responders and the local community to have five young lives lost in such circumstances,” he says.
NSW ambulance acting inspector, Matt Johnston, says the injuries were “confronting” to paramedics but no passengers were trapped in the vehicle and the driver was able to communicate throughout their assessment.
Asked how long it took between the first triple-zero call and the arrival of specialist paramedics teams, he says he doesn’t know the “exact time response” but a number of volunteer first aiders arrived in a timely manner.
“Like many agencies, more resources always help us support our community and in this instance we had resources available,” he says.
The alleged driver was taken to Liverpool hospital to undergo mandatory blood and urine tests and receive treatment for non-life-threatening injuries after he returned a negative breath test at the scene.
A provisional licence holder, he had graduated from the school a year prior.
After his release, he was arrested in the nearby town of Bargo on Wednesday afternoon and taken to a police station where he was charged with five counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.
The father of one of the teenagers killed tells the ABC he “doesn’t hold any grudges” against the driver. “He is going to go through hell,” he says.
Police said they were “investigating all lines of enquiry” but “preliminary investigations would indicate that speed is a possible factor in relation to this crash”.
A region of rolling green hills, cattle farms and horses, the Buxton community was rocked by tragedy 20 years ago when a Holden Nova crashed into a power pole on Bargo River Road.
Three teenagers aged 15, 16 and 17 were killed. A further three passengers suffered serious injuries.
Jasmine, a mother at Picton high school, was close friends with a woman who lost her brother in that crash two decades ago. Standing 5km down the narrow, winding road at another fatal incident, she said it felt like an all-too-familiar situation.
“It’s brought up a lot of things for her, and this just brings a lot of raw feelings out,” she says.
“It reminds you you’re mortal, you need to take care to protect yourself.[The students] are still trying to process it, we’re all still trying to process it … they’re way too young.”
