A man who was allegedly behind the wheel of a car that crashed killing three passengers has been accused of negligent driving while on a suspended licence.
Twenty-year-old Brooke Sorlie, her boyfriend Aaron French, also 20, and their friend Charlie Quinn, 18, died at the scene of the single-vehicle crash at Tarago, about 40km south of the NSW town of Goulburn, on Sunday.
The car had left the road and rolled, eventually stopping on its roof.
The male driver Lachlan Stuckey, 21, who was the sole survivor of the crash, was arrested and charged on Thursday with three counts of negligent driving occasioning death.
He was also charged with driving a motor vehicle on a suspended licence, NSW Police said on Friday.
Stuckey was granted conditional bail and will appear at Goulburn Local Court on October 9.
The group was reportedly returning to their hometown of Nowra from Canberra after attending a 21st birthday party when the crash occurred.
Ms Sorlie’s father Svein, who lives overseas, described his daughter as a ‘light in any room’ due to her positive spirit in a Facebook post.
‘You meant the world to me,’ Mr Sorlie wrote.
‘The ache of missing you has been a constant and now it feels even more profound.’
Charlie Quinn and her boyfriend Lachlan Stuckey, who was allegedly behind the wheel at the time of the crash
Lachlan Stuckey (pictured), was the sole survivor of the crash. He has been accused of negligent driving while on a suspended licence
Charlie Quinn, 18, has been remembered as a ‘beautiful girl’ after dying in the horrific accident
Pictured: Brooke Sorlie, 21, and Aaron French, who both died at the scene of the crash
A woman who was one of the first responders at the scene said she and other bystanders worked desperately to save the lives of the other man and woman while waiting for emergency services to arrive.
‘They were unconscious. We were giving them CPR but it just wouldn’t work. It was awful,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
One girl was still trapped in the car – the driver’s girlfriend. I can still hear hear his screams.
‘He was screaming to try and get in the car to get his girlfriend out.’
The tragedy has sparked outrage online as locals slam the condition of the road, which is frequented by freight trucks.
‘One of the worst roads I’ve driven on. Patched potholes everywhere. It’s been shocking for years,’ one person said.
Daily Mail Australia understands the group were travelling back home to the Shoalhaven region at the time of the crash
Another added: ‘The roads are a disgrace. I drive on them a lot and it is not fair that the roads are in this condition.’
One woman claimed there was a slab of concrete laying on the road near the crash scene, presenting a possible obstacle for drivers.
‘My family members were first on scene and there was a massive piece of square concrete on the road that appeared to have possibly caused the crash,’ she wrote online.
However, another first responder told Daily Mail Australia they did not recall seeing the object on the road.
