Kandanga Australia Day crash victim stable after airlift to hospital

One of the first people on the scene of a terrible car crash in the Mary Valley on Australia Day is haunted by the scene that greeted him - it was the second accident he’d witnessed that day. Read his story:

An Imbil father has recounted the horrifying moment he found the Kandanga driver of a crashed van face down on the steering wheel with “blood streaming from his nose” on Australia Day.

Alex Ritchie was on his way to work at around 6am on January 26, 2022, when he was saw two cars pulled over on Kandanga-Imbil Rd, one with its hazard lights on. He was flagged down by one of the drivers and immediately pulled over.

The driver of a van, who according to paramedics was from Kandanga and aged in his 60s, had veered off a straight stretch of the road into a gumtree and was trapped inside the wreckage.

Alex Ritchie and the man who flagged him down helped hold a tarp over the seriously injured van driver during rainy weather while paramedics treated him at the scene. Pics: RACQ Lifeflight

“He was crushed between his seat and the steering wheel; the whole front of the car had been crumpled,” Mr Ritchie said.

“One of his arms was hanging limp out of the window and he had blood streaming from his nose.

“His face was on the steering wheel.”

Desperate to keep the man alive, Mr Ritchie said he held his head up to keep his airways open while he and the man who flagged him down waited for emergency services to arrive.

“(The victim) was in and out of consciousness, barely breathing, and had a weak pulse,” he said.

Despite the chilling situation, Mr Ritchie said he somehow managed to keep calm.

Paramedics and firefighters soon arrived and had to cut the victim from the wreckage, with the help of Mr Ritchie and the other driver.

“Some of the man’s blood smeared on to my hand as I was pulling him out,” Mr Ritchie said.

He said the victim underwent a blood transfusion at the scene before a rescue helicopter was forced to land on the road.

The rescue choppers land on Kandanga Imbil Rd on Australia Day, after a man was critically injured when his car left the road and hit a tree. Pics: RACQ Lifeflight

The victim was flown to Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a critical condition at around 7am, with “significant” injuries to his leg, lower abdomen and chest, according to a QAS spokesperson.

A SCUH spokesperson said on Thursday the man was in a stable condition.

The crash was the second one Mr Ritchie witnessed in less than 24 hours

Only the night before, he and his wife Adele were woken by “screaming” from the road in front of their Imbil home.

A group of motorbike riders were joy-riding through the Ritchie’s street in Imbil when one of the riders lost control doing 100km/h in the 40km/h zone, Mr Ritchie said.

“One of them ‘lost’ control … took out our rubbish bin on the kerb, flipped a few times, then crashed his bike on to next door;s lawn,” he said.

A Queensland Ambulance spokesperson said the motorbike rider was taken to Gympie Hospital (pictured) in a stable condition after crashing in Imbil.

Mr and Mrs Ritchie rushed out to help, and were greeted by a camper from the showgrounds across the road.

Incredibly, the same man flagged Mr Ritchie down at the scene of the crash the next morning.

The 18-year-old rider was taken to Gympie Hospital in a stable condition with a broken leg, according to Mr Ritchie.

“It was a memorable Australia Day,” Mr Ritchie said.