Four killed in horror Gold Coast crash at Advancetown
Three young women and a man in their early 20s have died in a crash on a dangerous Gold Coast hinterland road. The accident - described by emergency workers as one of the worst they’ve seen - comes in the same week road funding was announced for the area.
QLD News
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FOUR young Queenslanders are dead after a horror car crash in the Gold Coast hinterland that emergency personnel described as one of the worst they have ever seen.
Three women in their early 20s and a man in his early 20s died after the Mazda 3 they were travelling in lost control around a bend on Nerang-Murwillumbah Road at Advancetown about 1pm on Saturday and collided with a Volkswagen Amarok ute.
Miraculously, the driver of the ute was taken to hospital with minor injuries, but it was the only mercy from a shocking scene that left experienced emergency services workers shaken to the core and needing welfare support.
Ambulance crews desperately tried to save the lives of the four young Queenslanders, who suffered “traumatic cardiac arrest” before passing away at the scene on a stretch of road notorious for accidents and littered with roadside crosses.
Acting senior operations supervisor Bill Houghton from Queensland Ambulance Service said it was ‘an horrific scene’.
“It was very traumatic,” he said.
“It’s probably one of the worst road crashes I have ever seen in my career.”
Investigators believe yesterday’s wet weather was most likely a major factor in the accident, which takes the state’s road toll to 137 – almost 20 more than at the same time last year.
Senior Sergeant Brett MacGibbon from the Queensland Police Service said the scene was horrific.
“Any accident involving one deceased (person) is horrific enough, let alone having four people killed in the one accident,” he said.
“We have attended to the welfare needs of first responders who attended and that will be ongoing in the next few days of the investigation.”
The accident was so catastrophic that detectives from the Criminal Investigation branch were brought in to assist officers from the Forensic Crash Unit as part of a response featuring dozens of emergency service first responders.
Senior Sergeant MacGibbon said the investigation would likely take some time to piece together the tragic events.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.
“We will be seeking any witnesses who may have followed these vehicles along Nerang-Murwillumbah Road.
“What we can say is the sedan looks like it has lost control when it was travelling around a right-hand bend and has slid in to the oncoming vehicle.”
He urged drivers to take extra care in the wet.
“It is very slippery out there with the rain, so to all motorists, please take care,” he said.
Anyone who witnessed the accident, or the lead-up, is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates said yesterday’s accident was ‘another tragedy’ on a notoriously ‘dangerous’ road.
“Wet conditions make our hinterlands roads hazardous,” she said.
Nine people have died in crashes on Nerang-Murwillumbah Road since November 2014 and seven more people have died in the wider Mudgeeraba electorate in that time.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads last week announced $34 million had been allocated to upgrading Nerang–Murwillumbah Road as part of a safety program targeting ‘high risk roads’.
Ms Bates said yesterday’s ‘tragedy’ reinforced the need for local consultation in that program.
“It is vitally important that TMR consults with locals who use this road and know the dangerous sections, as well as the Nerang Police and the Gilston/Advancetown and Numinbah Valley Rural Fire Brigades, who are more often than not first responders on scene in the Hinterland to these fatalities.”