A heavy police presence on South Coast roads helped keep the region fatality-free as it headed into the last day of Operation Tortoise, the NSW Police’s Easter road safety campaign.
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Nineteen people were injured in 28 major crashes in the southern region in the three-day period from Thursday to Saturday; compared to 27 injured in 53 major crashes in the same three-day period last year.
Late on Sunday night no fatalities had been recorded in the region - which includes Wollongong, Lake Illawarra and Shoalhaven local area commands and extends as far as Albury.
Tragically however, an eight-year-old girl is dead and her older brother is fighting for his life after a crash on the Central Coast that helped push the national Easter road toll to 13 on Sunday.
NSW Traffic and Highway Patrol Commander Assistant Commissioner John Hartley said Easter was a time when Australian families came together.
But after the horrific crash on a wet Central Coast road on Saturday evening, ‘‘we have a family that has been torn apart’’.
The eight-year-old died in Westmead Children’s Hospital on Sunday morning.
The eight-year-old died in Westmead Children’s Hospital on Sunday morning. Her nine-year-old brother is in a critical condition in the same hospital while a third child, a 12-year-old boy, is listed as stable.
Her nine-year-old brother is in a critical condition in the same hospital while a third child, a 12-year-old boy, is listed as stable.
Four women were also injured in the crash involving a car and a ute at Doyalson.
"Please, before you get into your car today, talk to each other, make the commitment to whoever is in your car or on your bike, that they are your responsibility," Assistant Commissioner Hartley said.
"Don't become distracted, don't drive faster than you should, and for everyone's sake - don't become complacent."
He warned drivers returning home from the long weekend to expect delays and be patient.
On Good Friday, bumper-to-bumper southbound traffic on the Princes Highway at Berry stretched 14 kilometres mid-afternoon with holidaymakers advised to allow an extra hour travel time. Traffic bottlenecks are also expected on Easter Monday.
Figures from Operation Tortoise for the southern region also showed reductions in infringement notices and drink driving charges year on year.
Speeding infringements for the three-day period from Thursday to Saturday were down from 750 in 2014 to 672 this year, while restraint infringements fell from 40 to 32.
Police conducted 30,502 breath tests in the region up till midnight on Saturday, charging 14 people with drink driving offences. That's down from 45 last year, although 9000 more breath tests were undertaken in 2014.
In the latest road deaths on Sunday, a woman pedestrian, 61, was killed in Sydney's west and a four-year-old boy was hit and killed while riding his scooter in Logan, south of Brisbane.
Operation Tortoise continues to midnight on Monday.
