Three dead, teen fighting for life after head-on crash on highway south of Canberra

Three people — including a teenage girl — have been killed and four others have been injured in a devastating head‑on crash on a regional NSW highway, with police now confirming one of the vehicles veered onto the wrong side of the road.

Emergency services were called to the Kings Hwy at Monga, about an hour south of Canberra, about 5.10pm on Monday to reports a Hyundai sedan and a Hyundai hatchback had collided at high speed.

NSW Police Insp Will Collins said the impact was catastrophic.

“Despite the best efforts of emergency services, police located three occupants of the hatchback — a 19‑year‑old, a 38‑year‑old female and a male who’s yet to be formally identified — who were unable to be revived and died at the scene,” he said.

A fourth passenger, a 15‑year‑old girl, suffered life‑threatening injuries and was airlifted to Canberra Hospital, where she has since undergone surgery.

Collins said early indications suggest the sedan crossed onto the wrong side of the road before slamming into the oncoming hatchback.

“What caused that manoeuvre is going to form part of the police investigation,” he said.

The 39‑year‑old male driver of the sedan and two boys, aged seven and three, sustained non‑life‑threatening injuries. All three were airlifted to hospital and remain in stable conditions.

Specialist crash investigators worked through the night, documenting the scene until the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Kings Hwy reopened about 5am.

Collins said the scene was “extremely confronting” for first responders and members of the public who had stopped to help.

“You’re looking at a head‑on impact at 100km/hour. The vehicles are extremely badly damaged as you can imagine,” he said.

He urged anyone with dashcam vision — particularly footage of the white 2023 Hyundai Ioniq travelling west or the silver Hyundai i20 travelling east — to come forward.

“If there are any motorists who might be in possession of dash camera footage that captures the collision or the moments beforehand, we’d ask for that to be provided to police,” he said.

Collins also reinforced the need to take caution on regional roads.

“Take additional care, take plenty of breaks, drive to the conditions, don’t be distracted,” he said.

“At these speeds, life‑altering things happen in seconds — and there are a number of families who are never going to recover from what happened yesterday.”