New England road toll: Seven lives lost since July 7 after 55-year-old man killed near Glen Innes

That’s the warning from police as they plead for motorists to take care and slow down on the roads as the deadly road toll climbs even higher.

A 55-year-old man was the latest local to lose his life on the region’s roads after he was thrown from his stationwagon near Glen Innes on Thursday night.

New England Inspector Chris McKinnon said the man, and his female passenger, were travelling westbound on Loosemore’s Rd about 5.10pm when the crash occurred, near Red Range.

“The stationwagon left the road and rolled a number of times and the male occupant appears to have been ejected from the vehicle,” he said.

He died at the scene, but investigations were continuing into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

“The female passenger was able to free herself from the vehicle and was later airlifted to Lismore hospital for treatment of non life-threatening injuries,” Inspector McKinnon said.

Seven people have been killed on New England North West roads since July 7.

Daphne Pepperell, 82, died en-route to hospital after a head-on crash at Moonbi on July 7, while a couple were killed a day later after their Holden sedan collided head-on with a northbound truck on the Newell Highway near Gurley, south of Moree.

On July 16, Shonae McCabe was killed when her car left the road and hit a tree at Duri, near Tamworth, while an Armidale couple died when their Holden Vectra crashed into a truck at roadworks north of Bendemeer, on Wednesday.

“There has been so many in such a short period of time and that is a concern,” Highway Patrol Inspector Peter McMenamin told The Leader.

“We need to put the community on notice, everyone needs to be paying attention on the roads.”

According to new figures from the federal government, the death toll for road users aged over 65 now accounts for about 20 per cent of all fatals. Young drivers, aged between 17-25, saw the biggest fall in the death toll rates, dropping 38 per cent between 2008 and 2015.

Inspector McMenamin said speeding and fatigue were the biggest killers on the roads, along with driver distraction.

“We implore motorists to the conditions, if you feel fatigued, pull up and have a break, fatigue can strike at anytime, and it only takes a second for something to go wrong,” he said.