2 Filipinos killed in Australia road accident

MANILA, Philippines - Two Filipinos working in Australia were killed by a speeding sedan while they were clearing a tree that fell on a road, Australian media reported.

Regional newspaper The Standard on Monday said two Filipino farm workers, identified as Jerome Mark Pellazar and Amando Isig, were killed at Broadwater after a Ford sedan hit them while removing the fallen tree.

The crash also killed a 58-year-old passenger of the vehicle, the report said.

Sergeant Callum McKinnon of Warrnambool police was quoted as saying that the two men were traveling east in a Toyota utility vehicles when they came across a fallen cypress tree on the road. Another utility vehicle pulled up behind them, with four men alighting to assist them.

“They were clearing the tree and realised the one chainsaw they had wasn’t enough for the job. Three males left to get another chainsaw, while the others stayed on the scene," McKinnon was quoted as saying.

After the other men left, the Ford sedan crashed into the tree, hitting and killing the male using the chainsaw and another one clearing the branches. The two men were killed while the front seat passenger of the Ford sedan died while being rushed to the hospital.

The report said Pellazar and Isig were both working at the Alanvale dairy farm between Macarthur and Willatook in Victoria.

An officer from the Moyne Shire Council said Pellazar had a wife and two children while Isig did not have a partner with him in Australia.