Three people have died, and four others are in hospital following a shocking head-on crash in southern New South Wales.

Emergency services were called to the Kings Highway at Monga, 42 kilometres north-west of Batemans Bay, just after 5pm yesterday.

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Three passengers in the eastbound vehicle died at the scene and have yet to be formally identified.

They included a female driver, her front-seat passenger (believed to be a teenage girl), and a male passenger in the back seat.

A fourth passenger, also thought to be a teenage girl, was flown to Canberra Hospital with critical injuries.

Four in hospital

A man and two children, who were in the westbound vehicle, have all been taken to hospital.

The 31-year-old driver was flown to Westmead Hospital with serious injuries.

A seven-year-old child was flown to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead in a stable condition, while a three-year-old was taken to Canberra Hospital as a precaution.

The Monaro Police District has established a crime scene, with specialist officers from the Southern Regional Crash Investigation Unit conducting an investigation.

The Kings Highway was reopened just after 5am today, but clean-up crews remain at the scene.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the crash was “devastating for the community”.

“This is obviously very traumatic for the people who are involved,” he said.

“We’ve got three families that will be affected for the rest of their lives as a result of this accident.”

Police are appealing for anyone with dash-cam footage of the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.

“If there’s dash-cam footage, please provide that to NSW police, it’s critical in terms of their investigation,” Mr Minns said.

“We need to find out what happened and do everything we can to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The crash brings the number of people who have died on NSW roads this year to 68, up from 46 at the same time last year.

The Kings Highway is a major road that connects the coast to Canberra, and yesterday marked the end of a long weekend in the ACT.

The member for Bega, Michael Holland, expressed his sympathies to those involved in the crash, including the first responders.

“It’s an absolute tragedy, and everyone’s thoughts are with the families,” Dr Holland said.

“Many people and our families travel that highway on a regular basis.

“The incident is a police matter and Transport for NSW will be performing their own investigation into the incident.”