Ken Whittaker dived into Kolan River in valiant attempt to save woman’s life

An ex-medic from Rockhampton who tried to rescue a Redlands woman after her car plunged off a Bruce Hwy bridge into a river near Bundaberg has described the rescue attempt and moment he knew he could not save her. *Distressing

A former medic braved murky waters saturated with gasoline to make an attempted rescue of the driver of the car that drove into the Kolan River.

When former medic Ken Whittaker came upon the scene of a horrific accident just north of Gin Gin on January 21, his automatic pilot took over.

Ken, 40, was on the home leg of a round trip from Rockhampton to Woodgate, after he and his wife Jasmine picked up their two young children from their grandparents where they had spent the weekend.

Minutes before they came on to the scene at Kolonga, a Mitsubishi Triton being driven by a 51-year-old Mt Cotton woman had lost control and driven off the Kolan River Bridge into the water below.

Ken Whitaker was driving home to Rockhampton from Woodgate with his wife, Jasmine and two young children when he came across the scene of the crash moments after the car went into the Kolan River.

After taking the Bruce Highway through Gin Gin in the family’s Kia Cerato, Ken took the bend towards the bridge soon after 11.45am where he saw cars stopped in both lanes and three people leaning over the bridge guardrail.

Ken parked the car on the side of the road and ran over to where he saw some men sliding down the embankment to the river.

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The men told Ken they had seen the Triton ute lose control and crash into the river just moments earlier, and emergency services had been called.

Himself sliding down the embankment, Ken saw two other men in the river who called out that they were unable to find the car in the dark, muddy water.

A former medical officer with private emergency services firm ER24, Ken knew he had a contribution to make to the rescue effort.

“I just took action,” Ken said.

“When I saw that no-one was really getting any results, I just jumped straight in.”

Ken ripped off his shirt, tossed off his shoes and dove into the water, guided to the car’s location by a stream of bubbles rising from an air pocket somewhere in the vehicle’s body.

As he made multiple attempts to find the car in the deep, murky water, he was joined by another man, an ex-commercial diver, while other people rigged up a 4WD parked on the bridge above with straps to winch the car out of the river.

Witnesses said the Triton ute lost control and drove off the Kolan River Bridge, near Kolonga 50km north of Gin Gin.

After a couple of attempts Ken found the car on its roof under about 7m metres of water, its windows completely buried in the mud on the riverbed.

“It must have just done a very quick swan dive off the edge to land on its roof; it must have hit nose first and then fallen over,” Ken said.

With the ex-diver unable to dive deep enough and long enough to reach the car, it was left to Ken to attach the winch strap around one of it wheels.

The strap broke on the first attempt, following which Ken, his skin and eyes stinging from the oil and petrol gushing into the water from the ute, swam down again with a hammer but found he was still unable to access any of the windows.

He reattached the repaired strap, and this time the car was successfully winched up to a depth of about 1.5m.

As the car was being raised its contents started floating out and up to the surface, including children’s lunch boxes, pink school bags and toys.

People standing on the riverbank saw the objects and picked them out of the water, then shouted “there’s kids in the car!” which sent a wave of panic through some of the people trying to help with the rescue.

“Some other guys that were in the water started to panic a little bit at the thought of kids being in the car,” Ken said.

“Myself and the ex-driver told them that if they didn’t want to want to see this, then they should jump out and help up top.

“So they took the opportunity to get away from what they might see.”

For Ken’s part, he was driven by a sense of urgency to rescue the car’s occupants as soon as possible, although he admitted “little panic lights” flashed in his mind at the sight of the children’s belongings.

Undeterred, he swam down to the car and ripped one of the back doors open, a sense of relief washing over him when he saw the back seats empty and no child restraints visible.

With the ex-diver holding the door open, Ken swam further into the car, checking first the passenger’s side which was heavily damaged, then finding the body of the driver, the 51-year-old Mount Cotton woman who died in the crash.

Ken checked the woman’s pulse and found no signs of life, then undid the seatbelt and swam to the surface to take another breath before diving back down to try to retrieve her body.

Bystanders rigged a 4WD parked on the bridge with straps which Ken Whitaker attached to the car submerged in the river.

He tried to drag the woman out through the open driver’s side window, but was unable to shift the body due to her being wedged under the steering column or dashboard.

Realising the woman’s life couldn’t be saved, Ken returned to the surface and relayed what he had seen to a police officer standing on the bridge next to the 4WD, then swam over to the riverbank where he spoke to paramedics and QFES personnel.

After the paramedics gave him a quick examination, Ken was reunited with Jasmine, who had been directing traffic until emergency services arrived.

“I’m really sorry,” Ken said to Jasmine.

“What for?,” she replied.

“I lost my wedding ring.”

Ken’s ring had slipped off his finger while he was involved in the attempted rescue.

“Well, I don’t think there’s a good way to lose one, but that sort of covers it,” Jasmine said.

Ken asked Jasmine to keep an eye on him, and she checked in with him the next day about how he was feeling.

He said he was consoled by the knowledge he did everything possible to rescue the woman, and that there were no children in the car.

“I just said, ‘well, there’s nothing that could have been done’,” Ken said.

“The only thing that might have made a difference is if I didn’t stop, and thought, ‘oh, there’s enough people there’.

“If you see an accident, and there’s people that have stopped and you don’t know what their abilities are, … you’re better off to stop and offer a hand.

“I’m 100 per cent glad that I did stop, I just think it’s the normal sort of Aussie way of seeing someone in need and lending a hand.”

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When asked if he thought of himself as a hero, Ken demurred.

“Definitely not a hero,” he said.

“Just someone trying to do the right thing.”