Woman, boy escape crocs

Boat mishap tosses both into the sea

A WOMAN has been badly injured, but her young child has miraculously escaped harm after two boats collided in saltwater crocodile-infested waters off Hinchinbrook Island on Saturday afternoon.

“The woman was thrown into the sea with her little boy and she said that all she thought about was crocodiles and that she had to get out of the water,” Halifax Police Sergeant Gio Tantalo said.

“Even with her injuries she’s got her boy up first and then she’s got herself out into the smaller boat that was anchored at the time.”

The officer in charge of Halifax Police said a 5m aluminium fishing boat carrying three males in their late 20s allegedly rear-ended a smaller stationary tinny carrying the Townsville woman, 33, and son, 6, in Small Boat Passage off the Hinchinbrook Channel at 2pm on Saturday.

“As a result of the collision the female and a child have been ejected into the water and have got themselves back into the boat,” he said.

Sgt Tantalo said a third boat had come to the aid of the woman, who had sustained significant shoulder and leg injuries, and her child.

Sgt Tantalo and a Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic, also from Halifax, boarded a small Coast Guard vessel at the Dungeness boat ramp in Lucinda to meet the third boat half way.

He said that despite difficulties navigating the channel at low tide the boats were able to meet and the QAS paramedic boarded the third vessel to begin treating the woman’s injuries. The woman was later transferred to Ingham Hospital where she remains in a stable condition.

Sgt Tantalo said all three men on the first boat, also from Townsville, were uninjured and had not been drinking.

“After the collision they remained there and provided what assistance they could,” he said.

He said an investigation would be handled by Cairns Water Police or Maritime Safety Queensland based in Townsville.

The accident occurred near Damper Creek in northern Hinchinbrook Channel.

The Coast Guard towed one of the damaged boats to the Fishers Creek boat ramp south of Cardwell.