TACKLING HEAD-ONS

It was just like any other early morning on the Hume Motorway for the stream of trucks heading towards the southern outskirts of Sydney after a long night driving from Melbourne.

Not much CB radio chatter because most drivers were too tired to talk; finally some good reception for FM music stations; and cars were jostling for freeway space as they began their long commutes towards the city, after merging from major side-roads.

Then shortly after 5am on March 24, 2017, near Wilton, 80km from the Sydney CBD, everything suddenly changed.

First the CB lit up with talk of a head-on truck crash nearby on the very busy Picton Road, a major state arterial between Sydney and Wollongong. Then the flashing lights and sirens of numerous police and emergency vehicles could be seen and heard on the opposite side of the freeway heading south.

A car-carrier driven by Michael Gorman, 39, and a bulk haulage combination driven by Adrian Ryan, 32, had collided just a few kilometres from the intersection with the freeway, not long after both