A TRUCK driver from Bathurst was one of two men who died when his furniture truck collided with a B-double on the Sturt Highway near Balranald at the weekend.
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The Bathurst man, whose name has not yet been released by police, was an employee of Dawson’s Removals while the other man, aged 36, came from Inglefarm, South Australia.
Police media yesterday reported that post mortem examinations would be carried out as a matter of procedure to confirm the causes of death of both truck drivers.
Crash scene investigators had spent time at the accident in a bid to determine how the crash occurred. However, it appeared there were no witnesses to the accident.
Within hours of the news of the accident reaching Bathurst, close-knit St Michael and St John’s Cathedral parishioners were praying for the Bathurst man on Saturday evening.
The congregation at the cathedral mass was asked by Parish Priest Father James Cutcliffe to offer their prayers for the man and his loved ones who survived him.
Fr Cutcliffe related to his parishioners how he had been deeply saddened by the death and called for the community to rally behind the family of the young driver.
The accident happened about 50 kilometres east of Balranald around 5am on Saturday, police said. The B-double had been travelling west from Sydney to Adelaide while the furniture truck driven by the Bathurst man was heading east to Bathurst.
The smash closed the Sturt Highway to all traffic for most of Saturday while police investigators tried to piece together what might have happened.
Renshaw’s Funeral Service yesterday confirmed the family of the truck driver had asked them to handle funeral arrangements.
However, details of a time and date for a funeral would be determined following the completion of police investigations and release of the bodies of the men to their families for burial.
