But yesterday morning came a tragic triple fatality at Staghorn Flat that has claimed the lives of a 67-year-old Yackandandah woman and an Allans Flat woman, 33, and her young son.

Their deaths resulted from what can only be described as a freak tragedy; the decoupling of a trailer from a petrol tanker as it rounded the bend and then collided with the two vehicles the women were driving.

Police and other authorities will det-ermine where the faults lay for the crash and why the tanker and trailer separated, but now is a time for the provision of support and sympathy for those who have lost their loved ones in this crash.

It is also time to offer support to the driver of the truck, a local man who bears a most dreadful burden of involvement.

We should also remember and support those emergency services personnel who have responded to this crash and have spent long hours on-site doing their job in the most difficult circumstances.

This tragedy will rock our region and will require our community to come together in the weeks and months ahead.