52-year-old driver dies in hospital after Bruce Hwy crash

52-year-old driver dies in hospital after Bruce Hwy crash

A 52-YEAR-OLD man lost his life in hospital Saturday night following a serious traffic crash at Chatsworth that had the Bruce Hwy closed for hours on Saturday afternoon  

The New South Wales man was driving a sedan which collided with a tanker travelling in the opposite direction north of the Robert Rd turn-off, and sout h of Irvine Rd, about 1.30pm.   The driver, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle, had to be cut from the wreckage of his car.   

He was transported to Royal Brisbane Hospital but died that night as a result of multiple fractures and internal injuries. The tanker, which had been carrying recycled cooking oil, lay overturned across the highway, leaking oil and blocking traffic in both directions.   

It was driven by a 44-year-old Arana Hills man who was taken by ambulance to Gympie Hospital with non-critical spinal injuries.   He was later airlifted to a hospital in Brisbane.  

Four ambulances from Gympie were dispatched to the scene alongside police cars and firefighters who cut the sedan driver from his vehicle.   A woman who was travelling from Curra to Gympie happened upon the scene minutes after it occurred.  

She said she pulled over to the side of the road, but with enough helpers on the scene already, she tried to direct traffic away from the accident.   She said many vehicles did not take the hint and approached, backing the highway up even more.  

A quick thinking truck driver further north of the highway blocked the road with his truck to stop further traffic building up.   When police arrived, they directed vehicles to a service road as an alternative route through Gympie; however trucks and cars towing caravans were unable to use it.  

When the woman came back past the area about an hour later, she said traffic, mainly made up of trucks, was backed up south of the accident location to Benson Rd.   The forensic crash unit investigated the scene and the oil spill was cleaned up before the highway was reopened hours later after 7pm.  

Anyone with information which could assist with this matter should contact Crime Stoppers anonymously via 1800 333 000 or crimestoppers.com.au 24hrs a day.