Hastings man dies in West Australia

A young Hastings man who left New Zealand for Australia earlier this year was one of three people killed in a crash near Perth on Friday night.

Luke James Adams, 20, was a passenger in a sedan overtaking a truck and trailer road-train when it collided with another vehicle coming the other way

on the Great Eastern Highway east of Southern Cross, a wheatbelt town between Perth and Kalgoorlie.

The crash also killed the 23-year-old driver, and the 38-year-old driver of the oncoming mini-bus. Ten people were flown by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to hospital in Perth

including a 25-year-old passenger in the car, and four pre-schoolers and a man and woman in their 60s from the van. All but one were later reported to be seriously hurt.

A paramedic said the stretch of highway had a 110km/h limit, and there appeared to have been no sign of braking.

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Mr Adams, who went to Karamu High School and whose father works for fruit packers Crasborn, had worked as a butcher in Hastings.

In March last year he won a demolition derby at the Meeanee speedway, in a car he got from elder brother Anthony, who had driven the 1300cc Toyota in two previous derbies.