A Skoda sedan and Mazda hatchback were travelling in opposite directions along a straight stretch of Beechworth-Wodonga Road at Wooragee about 9.25am Friday, but police have said it is too early to know what happened next.

Debris was left strewn across the road and the cars had been forced back off opposite sides of the road after the collision.

The drivers – one a 41-year-old from Wangaratta and the other a 43-year-old from Yackandandah – were the only occupants in their cars.

Wodonga Highway Patrol acting Sergeant Owen Clarke said  passers-by stopped to help, but the drivers were pronounced dead at the scene.

“Anyone who can see something like this and have the presence of mind to stop and provide first aid, they’re champions in my book because it would have been very confronting,” he said. 

“It was a big impact, there was a lot of debris everywhere.

“It was quite challenging when we got here to try and find out what was happening.” Police planned to take statements from witnesses and piece together the evidence.

“We’re going to investigate everything, all the big ones – speed, alcohol, fatigue, distraction,” acting Sergeant Clarke said. “You never know when these things happen, they happen in a blink of an eye.

“There’s some family tonight that have been absolutely torn apart and for years and years to come as a result of what happened in a split second – we want to stop this happening.”

The road between Beechworth and Yackandandah was identified as one of Victoria’s top 20 highest-risk roads targeted in the Towards Zero 2016-2020 Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan.

VicRoads North Eastern regional director Nicki Kyriakou said she was devastated to hear about the incident.

He said 29 submissions were received with a variety of ideas to improve safety.

“This information will influence the next stage of design,” Ms Kyriakou said.

“This approach aims to minimise the risk of death or serious injury on the roads by taking into account the interaction between roads, vehicles, speeds and road users.”

Friday’s fatalities took the region’s road toll to 14, well ahead of the six during 2015.

Superintendent Paul O’Halloran, who was at Friday’s crash site, said the concerning rise of fatality and injury numbers in Indigo Shire was a problem to be solved by police, motorists and the community.

“This particular area has been significantly affected by road trauma and we need to do something about it,” he said. “Some of it’s around driver error, some of it’s around road conditions.”