Man charged after Gunnedah highway crash kills three passengers

A 27 year old man has been charged today with dangerous and negligent driving offences after a single-car crash near Gunnedah, NSW, killed three passengers in the car he was driving.

Emergency services were called to the wreckage of a silver Holden Commodore on the Kamilaroi Highway, near Curlewis, about 20km south of Gunnedah about 6:30am on Wednesday.

The three back-seat passengers died at the scene and are yet to be formally identified.

The driver was taken to hospital with injuries to his arm and chest, while a 25-year-old woman in the front passenger seat was airlifted to John Hunter Hospital.

READ MORE: Three people die after single car crash in north-eastern NSW

Investigators quickly established a crime scene at the site of the rural crash.

The wreckage of the car was seen crashed among trees off the left side of the highway.

9News understands that all three of the victims of the crash were foreign workers in Australia.

The deceased passengers were a 27-year-old man and two women, aged 24 and 25.

Upon leaving the hospital, police arrested the driver and charged him at Tamworth Police Station.

Police charged the driver with three counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and one count of negligent driving occasioning death.

READ MORE: Why is Australia's road death toll so high this year?

Police said that the driver was a resident of the Tamworth area.

He was granted conditional bail to appear before Tamworth Local Court on Monday 22 January 2024.

The deaths on Wednesday brought the state's road death toll to 352 in 2023, 84 more than this time last year.