Crash car ‘mangled’

Driver dies in horror collision

A TOWNSVILLE businessman who was first on the scene of a horrific car accident at Bluewater yesterday is still reeling from the shock.

A 26-year-old Townsville man was killed instantly just after 4am yesterday when his maroon Camry sedan veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided with a truck.

The sedan travelling in the northbound lane, collided with the B-double truck heading south on the Bruce Highway north of Bluewater. The reason as to why the car was travelling on the wrong side of the road is under investigation.

The 52-year-old truck driver from Innisfail, Wayne Favier, suffered no physical injuries and was treated by the Queensland Ambulance Service at the scene.

The Bruce Highway was closed to motorists for almost eight hours while forensic teams gathered evidence.

The wreckage covered 60 metres of the highway with the queue of thousands of stranded motorists stretching 5km in each direction.

District Duty Officer Senior Sergeant Scot Warrick said the incident was “one of the worst” he had seen.

“The first challenge was to separate the vehicles and once that was done the nature of the wreckage made it very difficult to gain access,” he said.

Cleaning business owner Michael Brown was on his way to work when he turned onto the highway at Bluewater and could see flashing lights.

As Mr Brown approached the lights the truck driver flagged him down.

“He said, ‘mate can you call somebody please’ … I could hear the horn of the other car.”

Mr Brown said that the truck driver was in shock and was pacing up and down.

As Mr Brown called triple-0 to report the accident, he realised the gravity of the crash.

“There was no steering wheel, you could not even see any of the seatbelts or the seats, there was just nothing,” he said. “The car was shredded and it was mangled, like it had been in a crusher.”

Mr Brown has been offered counselling by police.

The accident is the first road fatality for 2020 in Townsville.

Police are appealing for anyone with dashcam footage to come forward.