An Australian teenage driver trying to avoid a booze bus killed himself and his 2-year-old daughter in a fiery car crash in Tasmania on Thursday night.
Ruby Rose Peart was trapped in her car seat as fire engulfed the wreckage of the car her father Alex Peart, 19, slammed into a power pole at Sorrel, north of Hobart, just before 10pm Thursday.
The impact of the collision tore the Holden Vectra in two.
Peart and Ruby's mother Xanna Rose Weavell were thrown from the front of the car, which killed Peart instantly.
But in the severed rear of the wreckage, Ruby remained strapped in her car seat.
Shortly after the crash, it erupted in flames.
Weavell survived the crash and was taken to Royal Hobart Hospital, for treatment to injuries police at the scene said were not life-threatening.Emergency services arrived too late to reach the toddler and she perished as flames engulfed the car.
The Mercury reports police were doing random breath tests at a roundabout on the Tasman Highway when a Holden Vectra driven by Peart did a U-turn and began speeding in the opposite direction, overtaking other vehicles.
The teenager lost control of the car and slammed into a power pole.
The fire erupted in the back half of the car, where Ruby was strapped in her car seat.
The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene, as was her father.
Weavell remained conscious throughout, Inspector John Ward said.
Ruby's death clearly shook the police and emergency services who attended.
"It's an horrific scene ... the car's been cut in half," Inspector John Ward told The Mercury.
"Two people dead and particularly an infant - it's a pretty tough scene."
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