Witnesses have relived the horrific moments when a BMW SUV driven by an elderly man slammed into a crowded beer garden, killing five people, including a child and a teenager.
The out-of-control white BMW
The pub was busy with hundreds of customers in the hours before the crash due to the unofficial long weekend leading up to the Melbourne Cup public holiday on Tuesday.
Debris and wreckage could be seen scattered around the crash area.
A six-year-old boy and a teenage girl were among those killed in the tragedy, one of the most shocking car crashes on record in Australia.
Local resident Rhonda White, who has lived in Daylesford for 40 years, said the usually quiet country town had turned into a scene worse than any movie.
She saw bodies vaporized in a cloud of blood and gore when they were hit at high speed by the car.
“There were dead bodies everywhere. It was horrible. I watched the whole accident,” she said.
“The car went up into the sky. I thought it was just dust. Only now do I know they were bodies.
The white BMW

A witness said he saw the car go “into the sky” and thought he saw a cloud of dust explode – but now realizes it was “bodies”.


“I can’t explain what I saw, something I wouldn’t even see in a movie.
“The car was going up, turning on the lights and I didn’t realize until later that there were all bodies around us – they were bodies I was looking at.”
Ms White described people “screaming and screaming” in the aftermath, barely able to believe what they had seen.
Another local woman working next to the pub said it was the most “traumatic” thing she had ever seen.
His staff came out to see bodies lying on the sidewalk.
“We’re all pretty shocked,” she said.
“It’s pretty bad, I’ve never seen anything so traumatic in my life.”
Eyewitnesses said the badly damaged BMW remained at the scene when emergency services arrived and frantically rushed to the aid of injured customers.
Its bumper bar was almost torn off and its hood crushed under the force of the impacts.
Police, ambulances and firefighters, as well as the Victoria SES, all quickly converged on the scene.
Superintendent John Fitzpatrick of Victoria Police’s traffic policing command told media on Sunday evening it had been a “long time” since he had seen something so “radical”.
“Anytime you have five people die on one scene, it’s horrible,” he said.
The horrific accident sent seven more people to hospitals from Ballarat to Melbourne, including four who had to be airlifted and are fighting for their lives.
One of them is the driver of the BMW, a 67-year-old man from Macedonian Mountain, whom eyewitnesses saw sitting motionless in his car for 10 minutes after the devastating impact.
Police are waiting to question the hospitalized man.
The pub was reportedly busy all weekend and the courtyard – overlooking the town roundabout – was “packed” at the time.

An out-of-control car crashed into a busy pub beer garden, killing at least five people and seriously injuring several others. Pictured: Emergency services on site

A woman from a business next to the Royal Daylesford said she and her staff were all “shaken” after seeing some bodies on the pavement.

The pub was reportedly busy all weekend and the courtyard – overlooking the town roundabout – was “packed” at the time.
Victoria Police have confirmed five people were killed in the horrific crash on Vincent Street in Daylesford, 100km northwest of Melbourne.
Four rescue helicopters were dispatched to recover the seriously injured victims. Dozens of police officers and several ambulance crews also rushed to the scene.
A man from Sailor’s Falls, just south of Daylesford, said “lots of sirens and emergency vehicles were screaming around” the town before 7pm on a local community Facebook page.
The owner of a pizzeria near the hotel rushed outside when she heard a “loud bang”.
“There was some sort of collision at the roundabout, I don’t know how many cars were involved,” restaurant owner Kitty Martin told the Herald Sun.
“The car looked pretty bad. Looks like he hit something pretty hard. Apparently he went through a pole.
One person said the pub was busy on Sunday.
“The Royal was packed with customers outside all weekend,” she wrote on social media.
Another said the Royal Hotel was one of the most popular venues in the area. An employee at a nearby restaurant said the car involved was “a mess.”
“There are a lot of people outside,” she said.
Eyewitnesses said the badly damaged vehicle remained at the scene when emergency services arrived and frantically rushed to the aid of injured customers.
Paramedics transported four patients to Melbourne for treatment, including a child.
The child was airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Two adults were airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and one adult to the Alfred Hospital, all seriously injured.
Paramedics also took two patients to Ballarat and one patient to Royal Melbourne in a serious but stable condition.
Victoria Police confirmed the accident on social media on Sunday evening.
“Emergency services are currently at the scene of a fatal crash in Daylesford,” police said in a statement.

Four rescue helicopters were dispatched to recover the seriously injured victims. Dozens of police officers and several ambulance crews also rushed to the scene.

An eyewitness reported that the driver of the vehicle sat in his car for 10 minutes without moving after the crash at the Royal Hotel (pictured) in Daylesford.