An elderly driver fatally injured in a horror crash near Breadalbane in 2022 was driving as much as 45 kilometres above the speed limit and not wearing a seatbelt, a coroner's inquest has concluded.
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Eighty-one year-old Brian Thomas Carroll died at the LGH five days after he lost control of his Toyota Hilux ute, rolling the vehicle across a traffic island roundabout.
Police found Mr Carroll alive lying face-down on the ground after being thrown clear of the ute during its roll.
He was transported to the LGH in a critical condition, but died five days later due to extensive brain injuries.
"I am satisfied that excessive speed and a failure to wear a seatbelt were significant factors in his death," Coroner Simon Cooper said in a report released on Friday.
The crash occurred in the early hours of September 2, 2022 when Mr Carroll was travelling south along Hobart Road near Breadalbane.
When Mr Carroll lost control, the ute mounted the traffic island, hit a street sign and rolled across the entire centre of the roundabout, destroying a central light tower in the process.
Police calculated that Mr Carroll was travelling at approximately 125km/h at the time of the crash - well above the speed limit of 80km/h.
Although drugs diazepam and paracetamol were found in his system, Mr Cooper concluded that they probably played no role in Mr Carroll's accident.
Mr Carroll had undergone surgery to remove a benign mass from his mouth in the weeks leading up to the accident, and his wife described him as a "changed man" following the operation.
"She said he suffered extreme panic attacks and in the day before the crash which caused his death she described him as delusional," Mr Cooper wrote.
"It is difficult, indeed impossible, to determine why Mr Carroll was driving where and when he was when he crashed.
"Some explanation may possibly be found in the symptoms of mental ill-health his wife described following his surgery."