The accident occurred near Klagenfurt, capital of the province of Carinthia where 58-year-old Haider was governor - around 2 am (0000 GMT), police official Meinhard Schiller told German news agency dpa.
Haider was driving by himself when his car veered off the road and flipped over after passing another vehicle.Police are still investigating the cause of the accident, in which no one else was injured.
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According to Schiller, Haider was on his way from an event to his home in Feistritz, about 30 kilometers from Klagenfurt.
"The end of the world"
"For us, this is like the end of the world," Alliance spokesman and deputy leader Stefan Petzner was quoted as saying by the Austrian press agency APA.
In a first reaction, Austrian President Heinz Fischer said he was "deeply affected" by the death of Haider.
Haider had been a "politician of great talent," who had sparked enthusiasm as well as criticism, Fischer said.
In parliamentary elections in late September, the populist leader's Alliance won almost 11 per cent of the ballots, nearly doubling its votes from the previous elections in 2006.
Haider's party split in 2005 from the Freedom Party, which gained prominence under Haider's leadership in the 1980s and 90s.
Notorious for inflammatory comments
Haider was notorious for provocative statements, such as his assertion in 1991 that the Third Reich under Hitler had a "proper employment policy." Nazi Germany had enslaved Jews and foreigners for its wartime economy.
In 2000, Haider led the Freedom Party into a government coalition as a junior partner of the conservative People's Party.
When the Alliance was formed in 2005, its officials took over the Freedom Party's seats in cabinet until the coalition broke down in 2006.
The 2000 centre-right coalition, in which Haider was not a cabinet member, met with strong criticism from European Union members, who reacted by implementing diplomatic sanctions against Austria.
Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, Haider's right-wing political rival, said Saturday that Haider was responsible for "incredible changes" in Austria which for a long time had been dominated by a "fabric of power" spun by social democrats and mainstream conservatives.
In his last interview published by the regional
on Saturday, Haider indicated he no longer had ambitions for leading the country.
"We changed a lot in Carinthia and we will go on doing so in Austria. I don't have to become chancellor to do that."
(Deutsche Welle)
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