DRIVERS AIRLIFTED AFTER TRAGIC LONG WEEKEND ON REGION’S ROADS
April 27, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DRIVERS AIRLIFTED AFTER TRAGIC LONG WEEKEND ON REGION’S ROADS
A driver had an arm amputated and had to be cut from the wreckage of a crumpled ute after a horror head-on smash on the Peak Downs Highway this morning.
The 22-year-old driver had finished work and was believed headed home when the car collided with a semi-trailer on the highway, near Coppabella, about 8am.
The ute driver was freed from the wreckage by Queensland Fire and Rescue crews and was in a very serious condition. He is now being transferred to Mackay Base Hospital by RACQ CQ Rescue (current 10.30am). The truck driver was believed unhurt in the accident.
It’s been a tragic weekend across the region with RACQ CQ Rescue called to airlift three seriously injured patients as a result of motor vehicle accidents. Another primary mission near Cape Hillsborough involved a child and parent injured in a dirt bike accident.
On Monday, the rescue helicopter was tasked to transfer a patient to Townsville after a serious crash with a truck on the Bruce Highway, north of Bowen, about 9am. The patient was transported from the accident scene to Bowen Hospital by Queensland Ambulance and then flown by RACQ CQ Rescue to Townsville with critical injuries, arriving about 11.45am.
The rescue helicopter had been tasked about 8am to fly south to a crash on the Bruce Highway near St Lawrence (directly prior to the Bowen accident), but was stood down en route to the scene.
RACQ CQ Rescue, tasked by Queensland Health, has completed 10 missions since Friday and flown more than 3000km over 33 hours.
Over the long weekend, the Mackay-based rescue helicopter has completed three transfers of patients to Townsville, attended two critical motor vehicle accidents at Bowen and Coppabella, a dirt bike accident near Mt Jukes as well as a number of hospital transfers from Hamilton Island, Hayman Island, Proserpine and Bowen.
Patients transferred to hospital were suffering from various medical conditions including pregnancy complications, stroke, overdose, a child suffering fits and a teenager knocked out in an AFL game.
Monday was by far the busiest day of the long weekend for the rescue helicopter crew which saw four missions completed including the airlift of two people, a five-year-old child and father, from a site near Cape Hillsborough after they were injured in a dirt bike accident.
RACQ CQ Rescue was tasked about 4pm to fly direct to the scene at Mt Jukes after a father had been doubling the child and crashed. The father suffered lacerations and grazes and the child potential spinal and neck injuries. Both required treatment and testing and arrived on board at Mackay Base Hospital at 5pm.
[ENDS]
RACQ CQ Rescue has flown a seriously injured driver to Mackay Base Hospital after a horror head-on smash on the Peak Downs Highway this morning..
Please credit any released photos and video footage to RACQ CQ Rescue.
Please note: Full title of rescue service is RACQ CQ Rescue.
For further information please contact:
Naomi Noy
RACQ CQ Rescue
Ph: 0417 578 182