Above and below: The white Toyota sedan after it crashed into the side of the Dandenong Telstra building. By Sarah Schwager
A DOVETON man died before his car crashed into a building in Dandenong after he apparently had a heart attack while driving.
Police said the man was driving with his wife to the hospital following chest pains at home when the car crashed at 1.11am on Tuesday, 27 December.
The man’s wife is said to have tried to take control of the car before it careered from McCrae Street onto the Dandenong Plaza forecourt hitting the side of the Dandenong Telstra building and ending up 50 metres along the paved walkway.
Emergency workers found the 53-year-old man dead on arrival at the scene.
Dandenong CFA Road Rescue crews freed the woman, 53, who was trapped in the 1989 white Toyota sedan.
Police said the car failed to negotiate a left 90-degree turn into Walker Street before the crash.
They say they suspect the man pressed on the accelerator pedal while he was having what they think was a heart attack.
As a result the car drove up the brick wall on the building twice before coming to a rest just before the Hub Arcade.
There was one witness in Dandenong at the time of the incident but police said he could not give any more clues to how the accident happened.
The man’s wife was taken to The Alfred hospital in a serious but stable condition.
Police said the death would not count towards Victoria’s road toll.
Greater Dandenong’s road toll jumped to 13 deaths for 2005 from nine in 2004.
