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Right place at the wrong time
Booze don't kill, people die
SYDNEY, April 24, 2011 (AFP) - - A group of Australians went to the effort of rescuing cases of alcohol that fell off the back of their pick-up after a night out but left a man to die who had fallen off with them, police said Sunday.
A number of the group were thrown from the back of the vehicle as it rounded a corner close to midnight Saturday in the country's rural southeast, shortly after leaving a local bar in the town of Maude.
One man, 31, hit his head on the road, sustaining fatal injuries.
"It will be alleged that the driver and remaining passengers picked up a number of cartons of alcohol which had fallen from the vehicle, placed them back on the tray, and then drove off, leaving the critically injured man on the road," police said.
"He was located a short time later by the occupants of another vehicle, who contacted police and emergency services. Attempts to revive the man were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced deceased at the scene."
Traffic services commander Joe Cassar said police were still trying to establish whether the man had known the others in the car.
"He may well have met them at the hotel, just before leaving," Cassar said.
Australia, known for its binge-drinking culture, is in the middle of a five-day weekend to celebrate Easter and the April 25 war veterans' holiday.
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