Two dead and as many as 18 others injured in a five-car crash on the Great Western Highway near Wallerawang. It's hard to remember a crash in our region that resulted in so many casualties.

An estimated 25 emergency services personnel were on the scene at one time.

Multiple rescue helicopters were called in to help remove the critically injured from the scene, and they were taken to hospitals right across NSW.

The highway, our main road to the mountains and beyond, was closed for the bulk of the afternoon. Most would be able to pin-point the location of the smash. Everyone across the Central West uses that highway to travel to Sydney.

The pictures from the crash scene are absolutely horrific.

For those who were on the roads and were confronted with such a terrible mess moments after, it must have been complete and utter mayhem.

It would have been an incredibly tough weekend for those people, as well as the families of those involved in the crash.

The cruel irony in all of this is just a couple of days prior we ran a story with transport for NSW authorities expressing concerns over the amount of head-on crashes in the corridor from Orange to Lithgow.

The volume of traffic using that passage of road is increasing, with more people making the move west to escape the Sydney bubble.

Those who aren't moving here permanently are using the Great Western Highway to either holiday in the Central West or visit family and friends who are here already.

Simply, the road we have to service that massive amount of traffic isn't up to scratch anymore.

We've gone years, seemingly, with roadwork being completed along the Mitchell Highway between Orange and Bathurst.

New guard rails separating traffic going in either direction and more overtaking lanes are the obvious improvements. Perhaps of even more significance is an improved road surface to travel along too.

There's more to be done, obviously, and our wait for a complete highway between Orange and Bathurst continues.

But I think as long as people know the end result will mean a safer journey on our main roads, then the wait will surely be worth it.

Stay safe over the new year period.

Nick McGrath, editor