A truck river is lucky to be alive after a horror crash near Doomadgee, near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The 48-year-old man called for help after crashing the truck he was driving about 80 kilometres from Doomadgee.
Around 3.30pm on Wednesday Doomadgee police attended a single truck accident on Hells Gate Road, an isolated road between the Queensland and Northern Territory border.
The 6.5 tonne truck went off the road into bushland, knocking down several trees, resulting in the trees trapping the driver’s legs within the vehicle.
Police and Queensland Ambulance Service officers were told the driver was losing blood and had lost feeling in his leg.
Upon arriving on the scene police assessed the driver’s injuries before breaking the front windscreen and using a high lift jack and hacksaw to remove the driver’s door.
Doomadgee acting Senior Constable Phil Newton used previous mechanical trade training to help free the driver. QAS officers stabilised the driver while it took police over an hour to free him from the wreckage before being flown to Townsville Hospital.
Acting Senior Constable Newton said investigations into the cause of the crash were ongoing.
“Ambulance and police officers did a great job working together along with motorist who stopped to help out, which is appreciated,” he said. Doomadgee Senior Sergeant Matthew Campbell said being a remote area, police and ambulance officers did a great job with the resources they had available.
“We don’t have extensive resources in the bush and we make do with what we have,” he said.
“This is an excellent example of country police using simple ingenuity to resolve a serious situation and I am very proud of my officers.”
