by Luke Voogt
A rollover has killed a man who was clinging to the side of a car on Thompson Rd at Bell Park about 9pm on Sunday night.
The 41-year-old man was hanging off the side of the Kia Sorrento when it collided with a Volkswagen near APCO North Geelong service station, police said.
The collision caused the Sorrento to overturn, flinging the 41-year-old man to his death.
Investigators had yet to determine why the man had been hanging from the car, a police spokesperson told the Indy on Monday morning.
A 20-year-old Newcomb man driving the Sorrento allegedly fled the scene before patrolling officers arrested him a short time later, police said.
Police took the 20-year-old to University Hospital Geelong with serious injuries, while paramedics treated the female driver of the Volkswagen for minor injuries before taking her to hospital too.
Police had yet to charge the 20-year-old man, who a Barwon Health spokesperson said remained in a stable condition under police guard in hospital.
Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives were investigating the crash on Monday morning, police said.
They hoped to speak to anyone who saw a black Kia Sorrento travelling between Hamlyn Heights and Bell Park with a man hanging onto the side.
Police urged any witnesses or anyone with dash cam footage or information to phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
The 41-year-old man was the sixth person to die on the notoriously dangerous Thompson Rd this year.
In October a 36-year-old man died after a car hit him while he was walking his bike across the road.
Three people died in separate crashes on Thompson Rd in July and May and a car struck and killed an elderly pedestrian in February.
The latest fatality occurred within an area where VicRoads reduced the total lanes of Thompson Rd in both directions from four to two.
The controversial, $200,000, six-month trial between Morgan and Separation Sts has angered both local traders and Indy readers.
Veteran North Geelong trader John Boom last month told the Indy the dangerous road was “even worse” after authorities applied the trial safety fix.
Mr Boom said the decision to install right-hand turns into Naughton Ave and the APCO service station opposite in the same lane threatened to produce even more crashes.
“Head-to-head traffic trying to turn at the same time from the same lane? It’s deadly madness.”
Thompson Rd has accounted for 25 serious and 46 minor-injury collisions in the past five years, according to VicRoads.
Sunday night’s death brought the Victorian road toll to 245, up 49 on the same time last year.
