Police officer "flat on his back" at Bruce Hwy crash

High impact motorcycle crash is third in one afternoon for Gympie

CRASH: A motor scooter rider was badly hurt when he crashed while avoiding an apparently driverless vehicle in Mellor St yesterday.

UPDATE 7pm: A WITNESS has described the scene of a crash involving  a police officer on a motorcycle and a larger vehicle near the Neerdie Rd intersection on the Bruce Hwy this afternoon.

The driver said he happened upon the crash when driving from Glenwood to Gunalda, minutes he thinks after it occurred around 5pm.

He saw cars pulled over near a police motorcycle which was in the middle of the road. He said a male officer in full police uniform was "flat on his back and not moving at all" while civilians  attended to him.

The witness saw one person holding the officer's hand up while encouraging him to squeeze it.

He said the officer responded by squeezing but weakly. 

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The bike looked to be badly damaged, the witness told The Gympie Times, with some sort of "police cover" from the bike spread across the road.  

A police spokesman said the seriousness of the crash and the circumstances were unknown at this point but could confirm the crash involved a police officer and his vehicle.

EARLIER: EMERGENCY crews late Monday rushed to a high impact motorcycle crash north of Gympie.

Early reports indicated the rider was a police officer, whose machine had impacted with a larger vehicle at or near the intersection of the Bruce Hwy with Neerdie Rd, near Gunalda.

No details were available at deadline.

It was the third serious motorcycle crash of the afternoon.

A man in his 50s suffered severe injuries about 3pm when his 500cc motor scooter crashed while avoiding an apparently driverless utility in Mellor St.

He suffered multiple compound fractures to his lower leg, as well as severe chest injuries and probable internal abdominal damage.

Three young people on the footpath said they were lucky not to have been hurt as the scooter evaded the utility, which apparently had rolled out of a driveway.

Doctors were working to stabilise the man at Gympie Hospital prior to a planned transfer to Nambour.

Police said the Forensic Crash Unit would investigate the incident, which closed Mellor St for about an hour.

One official said it was part of a spate of motorcycle crashes, two of them fatal, in recent weeks.

In a separate incident this afternoon, a man, 32, suffered chest injuries when his green Kawasaki Ninja crashed at Southside near the Kidd Bridge on Exhibition Rd at 2pm.

Police believe he leaned too far into a corner and his bike hit a guard rail.