REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Tuesday July 25, 2006

A SHAKING witness described the horror crash on the M1 that killed a woman and injured nine as “my worst nightmare unfolding before my eyes”.

The first fire officer on the scene said it was “like a war zone”.

A Mack semi-trailer, laden with rubbish in a large skip, careered across from the northern lanes at 12.14pm, becoming airborne over the median strip and slamming sideways into six south-bound vehicles before Exit 38 at Yatala.

A woman driving a white Ford utility was killed as her vehicle was destroyed in an instant when the truck landed on it while skidding north in the southbound lanes for almost 100m.

Nine people were taken to the Gold Coast and Logan hospitals but only the truck driver, who was on his first trip after his holidays, was reported to have life-threatening injuries.

He was airlifted from the scene and in a critical condition with multiple injuries in the Logan Hospital.

Another patient was in a stable condition at Logan Hospital, one had been discharged and six patients at Gold Coast Hospital were also described as stable.

One witness, who did not want to be named, said he was in the next line of cars and narrowly missed the sliding truck.

“I drive from Brisbane to the Gold Coast on business a few times a day and I have often wondered what it would be like if something crossed the median strip and bored into cars doing 110km/h,” he said.