‘SOUNDED LIKE A GUNSHOT’
A WITNESS has described the moment a truck and car collided head on in a fatal crash north of Townsville.
The Bruce Highway was shut for hours at Rollingstone on Monday afternoon and into the night following a crash between a truck and car, travelling in opposite directions, about 3.30pm.
A man in his 20s, believed to be from overseas, died at the scene. The female truck driver was not seriously injured.
The truck driver, who witnessed the crash and asked not to be named, said the impact sounded like a “gunshot” from his vantage point, about 50m behind the truck when the vehicles hit.
He said the crash was so forceful he could feel the thump in his chest as the two vehicles collided.
“I was about 50m behind the truck. It sounded like a gunshot right beside my head,” the man said.
“I was out of the truck before my truck was able to stop. I ran straight for the truck because I could hear her (the other truck driver) yelling.
“I doused the whole lot (with a fire extinguisher) so it wouldn’t catch fire.”
The witness said he drove to Ingham twice daily but had never seen a crash as bad.
Police are still working to formally identify the man killed in the crash.
It’s understood the man, in his 20s, was driving a Toyota Camry which collided with a truck driven by a Townsville woman.
A Queensland Police Service spokeswoman said officers were attempting to contact the man’s next of kin.
Preliminary police investigations suggest the Toyota Camry and truck were travelling in opposite directions along the highway when they collided.
The impact was so forceful the engine block from the sedan was found more than 50m away from the wreckage.
The witness said it was still running as he ran toward the wreckage.
Debris from the impact of the crash covered the complete width of the Bruce Highway and stretched for more than 60m along the road.
The truck’s tyre under the driver’s side of the cabin was completely dislodged in the crash and flew back below the body of the rig, while the cabin itself sustained extensive damage.
District duty officer Senior Sergeant Matt Lyons said that emergency personnel were confronted with traumatic scenes.