Police charged an 18-year-old after a car left a Wallsend roundabout and struck a crowd of Newcastle Knights supporters, injuring 10 people including three children.
An 18-year-old driver has been charged after a car crashed into a crowd of Newcastle Knights supporters at Wallsend on Saturday morning. Police said the car entered a roundabout on Newcastle Link Road at Transfield Avenue about 9:30 a.m., lost control and hit the crowd.
Ten people, including three children, were injured. A young girl and a man in his 60s were fighting for life. Four other people — a second 5-year-old girl, a 2-year-old girl, a 31-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man — remained in hospital in a stable condition. Three men aged 24, 25 and 27, and a 63-year-old woman, had been discharged.
Police identified the driver in court listings as Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe. He faces three counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, three of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, and three of causing bodily harm by misconduct. His licence was suspended and the car was seized.
He was expected to face a bail court on Sunday. The Herald reported the incident happened as hundreds of supporters were in the area.
Police had not published a full account of why the car left the roundabout. The condition of the two critically injured people remained the focus of local updates.