Police remain baffled how a truck driver they thought had been killed in a fiery crash showed up alive more than 30 hours later, 16 kilometres away from the scene of the accident.
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Investigators presumed the 51-year-old man had been killed when his truck collided with a four-wheel drive on the Glenelg Highway near Tarrington, in Victoria's west, about 6am Tuesday.
The 26-year-old South Australian man driving the 4WD died at the scene, east of Hamilton, and his 17-year-old male passenger was flown to The Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he is fighting for his life.
The prime mover burst into flames and police believed the driver's body was trapped inside its charred wreckage.
But a farmer found him on his property in Penshurst, 16 kilometres southeast of the crash site, just before 4pm on Wednesday.
He was taken to the Hamilton Hospital with injuries, including burns to his body.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Mark Amos, from the major collision investigation unit, said the man, from Glen Waverley, was in a stable condition but had not recovered enough to be interviewed.
"We're trying to piece together his movement from the time of the crash to the time when he was located by the farmer," Senior Sergeant Amos said.
"There's some 30-odd hours when we don't know where he's been.... [and] it's a significant distance to walk, particularly after being involved in such a big crash."
Senior Sergeant Amos said evidence at the crash site suggested the Melbourne-bound four-wheel drive, which was towing a trailer, had crossed onto the wrong side of the road and collided into the front of the truck.
He said it appeared the truck driver, who was driving towards Hamilton, was trying to avoid the four-wheel drive when it left the road.
"For reasons unknown to us, he's left the scene and that's where our investigation is primarily sitting at, at the moment," he said.
Graeme Presser, the farmer who found the man, said he was looking for parts in a shed when the truck driver approached him.
"I didn't see him, I must have woken him up," Mr Presser told Channel 10 News.
"It's just an amazing story. I was a truckie years ago, and I saw this sort of thing years ago and that's why I'm doing this (farming)".
Senior Sergeant Amos asked for anyone who might have seen the man walking on the road or through farmland around the Hamilton area on Tuesday or Wednesday to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
