By Gaby Grammeno Contributor


The woman, who had travelled to Australia from her home in the UK, was driving from Alice Springs back to her workplace at about 1pm on 17 June 2023 on an unsealed part of the Sandover Highway, when the Troop Carrier’s passenger side wheels hit a rough section, possibly a loose edge or gravel. 

According to her passenger, she steered to the right, veering to the other side of the road then steered left, causing the vehicle to go into an anticlockwise yaw. Turning to the right again caused the vehicle to broadside before tripping and rolling about 70m and coming to rest on its wheels. 

The driver was trapped inside the crumpled car, seriously injured and unresponsive. A passer-by stopped to help but was unable to call for assistance due to a lack of mobile phone reception at the crash site.  

The other motorist drove the injured passenger to a medical clinic and called 000 as soon as she had reception, but police and clinic staff did not arrive at the scene until after 4pm. Efforts were made to resuscitate the driver, but she was declared dead at 4.27pm. 

When the accident happened, she’d been driving at a speed of about 116km/h, according to a later police estimate. The driver and her passenger were both wearing seatbelts and there was no evidence of alcohol or drugs in her toxicology results. 

The 27-year-old had been working as a volunteer at Warlukurlangu Arts Centre in Yuendumu, after completing her education in Britain with an Honours degree in Globalisation, History and Politics and a Master’s degree in Human Rights. 


Inquest 

An inquest held in the NT Coroners Court heard that this was the fourth rollover on the Sandover Highway involving an Ampilatwatja Art Centre vehicle.  

Previous crashes had also involved Troop Carriers driven by three different drivers. In the third rollover, both the driver and the passenger were seriously but not critically injured. 

The issues for the inquest were whether the corporation managing the arts centre had sufficient policies, procedures and systems in place to manage the workplace risk of driving on unsealed roads and ensure its vehicles were registered with current ownership details, whether the road maintenance schedule for the Sandover Highway was adequate and followed, and whether the default maximum speed limit of 110 km/h for the highway was appropriate. 

The young woman had been appointed to the vacant manager position despite the fact she held only a Learner’s licence, not a ‘current driver’s licence and ability to drive a manual 4WD’, which was listed as an essential criterion when the job was advertised. This resulted from the somewhat informal and irregular nature of her recruitment, because of a lack of suitable applicants for the position.  

Nevertheless, her driving ability had been assessed as cautious and showing common sense by a former worker at the centre, when he showed her around the community roads with the young woman doing the driving. He was an experienced 4WD driver but was not an accredited instructor and had never undertaken 4WD training himself. 

He had given her a 4WD manual to study in her own time and familiarised her with the general workings of the Troop Carrier, which was then unregistered. She changed a tyre, checked oils and fluids, and he had instructed her on how to engage 4WD. She was required to be accompanied by a licensed driver when she drove the vehicle. 

The arts centre’s Policies and Procedures Manual was referred to in the young woman’s induction, but it did not contain any policies regarding work vehicles or driving. Nor did a Handover Guide and Healthy Corporations Checklist which she had been given. 

Though she’d been told she needed to do a 4WD course, it was her own responsibility as manager to arrange this, and it did not eventuate. At the time she was not eligible to do the training anyway, as she didn’t have a full licence. 

A 4WD trainer gave evidence that the skills he teaches were directly applicable to the crash scenario as it happened. In particular, the relationship between speed, steering input and braking. He said a safe maximum speed for an unsealed road is 80kmh, which he regards as providing ‘a reasonable safety buffer for most drivers on unsealed roads in that it allows most drivers time to adjust to unexpected changes, for example, in the road surface or stray animals entering the road’. 

Judge Elisabeth Armitage said that it was ‘very clear from the evidence that requiring employees to complete a 4WD training course is a recognised and efficacious risk management tool’. 

The inquest also heard that low-cost, reliable devices can help mitigate remote driving risks, including vehicle-mounted and small hand-held devices with a duress alarm and automated text features, to monitor speed and manner of driving in real time. Some of these devices also provide a communication function in the event of a crash or other critical event when travelling on roads without mobile phone coverage. 

The Sandover Highway is a secondary rural road, and the relevant government department’s duty to maintain it reflects the low volume of road users. However, more than $4 million had been spent on its maintenance in the four years before the accident. The default speed limit on the road is 110kmh unless signposted otherwise. 

Judge Armitage found that when the young woman crashed, she was not travelling at a safe speed for the conditions, due to her inexperience as a driver and particularly in driving on unsealed roads. 

‘She should never have been placed in a position that permitted her to drive a large 4WD on the Sandover Highway,’ she said. 

Moreover, given the three earlier rollovers, insufficient weight and consideration had been given to her only having a learner’s licence when she was offered the manager’s position. The steps taken to try to ensure her safety when driving were inadequate to mitigate the risks. 

Judge Armitage observed that it was ‘concerning but not surprising’ that the Board of the corporation managing the arts centre had little understanding of their legal responsibilities for work health and safety, but she commended them for their efforts to improve the situation. 

Recommendations arising from the inquest were that the corporation managing the arts centre upgrade their safe driving policy by assessing the risks, and consider including a maximum speed limit for staff using the centre’s vehicles.  

She also recommended the centre adopt technology for its work vehicles to monitor driver behaviour and speed and give drivers a means of communication in areas without mobile coverage, require workers to complete a 4WD course before using centre vehicles; and check a government website advising on road conditions before undertaking remote driving. 

Judge Armitage also said the speed limit on the Sandover Highway might be too high, and recommended that the NT Department of Logistics and Infrastructure conduct a comprehensive review within 12 months. 


View the inquest’s findings 

Inquest into the death of Grace Charlotte Moulding [2025] NTLC 11