Follow-up to previous post about Ash [UPDATED – details of funeral service]

Just as a follow-up to Angus Dei’s recent post about the sudden loss of our administrator Ash,  following is the Death Notice published in yesterday’s Melbourne Herald Sun, and some items from the early [UPDATE: and follow-up]  news reports of the single-car accident in Ferny Creek.

Published in the Herald Sun on 22/1/2009

Ashleah Emery

EMERY. – Ashleah.  The family of Ashleah Emery are saddened to announce the death of their beloved daughter on Jan. 15, 2009.   Sadly missed by Alan and Bev, Nik and Andrew, Sarah and Bronwyn and families.   Anyone wishing to contact the family can do so on (03) 9754-7463.

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The Age, January 15 2009:

The badly burnt body of a motorist was found in a car after it veered off a tourist road in the Yarra Valley and landed ablaze in a driveway this morning.

Shocked neighbours called 000 when they saw the car in flames in the driveway of a Ferny Creek home in the Dandenongs.

The driver of the car was killed after the vehicle ran off the windy Mount Dandenong Tourist Road about 10.45am, hit a tree, dropped down an embankment and began burning in the driveway.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the property’s owners weren’t at home at the time and neighbours called emergency services to the scene.
The body has not yet been able to be identified.

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Herald Sun, January 15 2009:

One person, believed to be a woman, was killed after her car apparently left the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road at Ferny Creek, in the Dandenong Ranges, south east of Melbourne, and hit a tree shortly before 10.45am.

Emergency services said the car then went down an embankment, ending up in a residential driveway before bursting into flames.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Leeanne Clinton said the motorist was the only person in the car but it was not yet known whether they died as a result of the crash or the car fire.

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Springvale Dandenong Leader, January 15 2009:

[A] 22-year-old woman died in a single-vehicle accident on the Mt Dandenong Rd, Ferny Creek […]

[T]he 22-year-old Selby woman was driving west along the Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd at 10.40am when her car swerved off the road about 300m west of Churchill Drive.

The white Mitsubishi Lancer landed on a nearby driveway after careering down an embankment.

A neighbour heard the accident and alerted 000.

Monbulk Sgt Alan Fincher said when the neighbour got to the car it was engulfed in flames and they couldn’t go near it.

Sgt Fincher said investigators were yet to determine what caused the car to veer off the road.

UPDATE:  From the Maroondah Journal, via Kae.

THE death of a 21-year-old woman in Ferny Creek last week has sparked renewed calls for a guard rail along a “dangerous bend”.

Ashleigh Emery, of Selby, died when the car she was driving crashed into a tree on Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, rolled down an embankment onto a driveway and caught fire about 10.45am last Thursday.

Resident Ed Bright, who lives next door to where the car crashed, has been trying to get guard rails installed for years.

Mr Bright’s wife Lynette and daughter Courtney were home at the time of the crash.

“We just heard this massive explosion and noise, unlike anything we’ve heard.

“I went running out and Courtney went straight for the phone. I was screaming, ‘Is there anybody there?’ because I was thinking the driver must have been somewhere.”

Sergeant Alan Fincher of Monbulk police, who attended the scene, said: “The car had caught fire and there was just nothing anyone could do.”

Tragic scene: Ashleigh Emery died when her car crashed into a tree, rolled down an embankment and caught fire. Picture: Wayne Hawkins

.

Our editors will try to keep this post updated as further information comes to hand.

[Update:  In answer to some readers’ concerns, please note that Ash’s father Alan confirms that she was childless]

UPDATE 4: Funeral service details (also, see bottom of page here):

Ashleah EMERY — Funeral Service

Herald Sun|27 January 2009

A Funeral Service to
celebrate the life of Ashleah
Emery will be held at 12 Lyons
Drive, Selby on SATURDAY
(Jan. 31, 2009) at 3.00 p.m.

A Private Cremation

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Ashleah Emery / Ashleah Emery — The family of Ashleah Emery are saddened to announce the death of their beloved daughter on Jan. 15, 2009.   (03) 9754-7463.Ashleah Emery / Ashleah Emery — The family of Ashleah Emery are saddened to announce the death of their beloved daughter on Jan. 15, 2009.   (03) 9754-7463.