Driver in custody, pedestrian critical after hit-and-run in Sydney

Sydney, Aug 23 (AHN) A driver was arrested after allegedly running from the scene of a hit-and-run in Sydney's northwest Sunday afternoon, police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) said.

Emergency services were called to Ferndale Avenue, Carlingford, about 22 km northwest of the Sydney central business district at about 12:30 p.m. local time after reports that a pedestrian had been hit by a car, NSW police said in a statement.

Officers found that a van had hit a pedestrian before the driver of the van allegedly ran from the scene on foot, NSW police said.

The pedestrian, a 34-year-old man, was trapped under the vehicle, and emergency services worked to free him before NSW ambulance paramedics treated him at the scene, reports Xinhua news agency.

He was taken to hospital in a critical condition for further treatment, police said.

Following a search of nearby bushland, police arrested the alleged driver, a 29-year-old man, before taking him to a police station.

Police have established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the incident.

Earlier on August 19, three people died, and one other was hospitalised in separate traffic collisions within a six-hour span in the Australian state of Queensland.

The Queensland Police Service (QPS) said in a statement on Thursday that a 27-year-old man died when his vehicle left the road and struck a tree in the southern suburbs of Brisbane around 7:35 p.m. local time on Wednesday night.

Earlier on Wednesday, the QPS said a 63-year-old woman was killed shortly after 2 p.m. in a three-vehicle crash in the small town of Wamuran, 50 km north of Brisbane.

Police said that the woman was one of two people standing outside their parked vehicles when she and the vehicles were struck by a third car.

She died at the scene. A 22-year-old man was assisting police with inquiries into the incident.

Another woman, aged 72, died when the vehicle she was driving collided head-on with a utility in the nearby town of Armstrong Creek around 1:55 p.m, police said.

The driver of the utility, a 54-year-old woman, was transported to a Brisbane hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the latest official data, as of Wednesday, 202 people had died in incidents on Queensland roads so far in 2026, up from 187 at the same point in both 2025 and 2024.

Police said that investigations into all three incidents on Wednesday are ongoing.