Horror Ipswich road: Crashed truckie found scalped and blood drenched at Rosewood

Five South East Queensland families who have become first responders to multiple crashes in their own front yards are calling for action before they are confronted with a dead body.

Rosewood families who often wake to the sound of screeching tyres and gut-churning crashes, are dreading the moment they are confronted with a dead body in their front yard. They say it is not a matter of if but when.

Over the past 18 months, 10 serious crashes have occurred near the notoriously dangerous S-bend along Rosewood Karrabin Rd, an 80km section of road 2km east of Rosewood’s township.

In that time, a truck has crashed through a home, a car landed on a farmer’s roof, another crashed into a pole, and many vehicles have gone through fences.

Police said speed and alcohol were alleged contributing factors in some of the crashes.

Locals claim the crashes are becoming more frequent as more people move west out of city centres.

They want something to be done to stop the death toll and families losing loved ones.

The thoroughfare, mostly 100 km/h, is one of the Ipswich region’s major roads, running from Rosewood to West Ipswich.

It is set to get busier as estate developers plan to build thousands of homes along that corridor.

‘Suicide bend’ along Rosewood Karrabin Rd. Picture: Google Maps

Rosewood born and bred retiree Bruce Hodgson, 67, has lived near the bend for 42 years and has petitioned Ipswich City Council to organise a guard rail but to no avail.

An Ipswich City Council spokesman said the road was managed by the state Department of Transport and Main Roads.

“Division 4 Councillor Kate Kunzelmann has spoken to [a] resident concerned and advised the matter has been referred to the state government for further action.”

Mr Hodgson said the number of crashes “has been incredible”

“I’ve lost count. I refer to it as suicide bend now,” he said.

“I don’t understand why anyone won’t do anything about it. Does someone have to be killed or several people before they even think about it?

“I do not want to find someone all mangled up and dead and it’s going to happen, it will happen.”

Mr Hodgson said he is often one of the first to arrive at the scene of a crash which can be tough because he doesn’t have the stomach for blood or medical training.

A year ago, he said he was dozing off in bed when he heard a “young fella” screaming out “help me” from his front yard at about 1am.

“I went out and he was scalped and the blood was just everywhere. I nearly passed me out,” he said.

“I sat him down on the front patio and put a blanket around him. I had to go and get a bucket because the blood was just running out of his head and into the bucket.

“It shakes you up a bit and gives you a hell of a fright.”

The bend was recently upgraded, however residents say the barrier was installed at a section of the road where crashes do not occur, rather than in front of light poles and homes just after the bend. Rosewood Karrabin Road. Picture: Facebook/Bruce Bennett

Mr Hodgson said the man had been driving a small tip truck which went airborne before crashing into a home and pushing it off the stumps.

Luckily no one was in the house at the time, however the owner was forced to demolish the house.

Mr Hodgson said he’s not only concerned for those who live near the deadly bend, and those who crash, but innocent bystanders and motorists.

He said on October 12, an alleged drink driver almost collided with an oncoming car before smashing through a resident’s fence destroying a garden.

A police spokesman said after spending a night in the watch-house the driver, a Haigslea resident in her 20s, was charged with driving under the influence and driving without due care.

The woman was not the first vehicle to plough through the fence.

A bike rider was hospitalised for a week after slamming through the fence, totalling his bike.

The crashed car in the Bennetts yard on October 12. Picture: Facebook/Bruce Bennett

As a result of the crashes, homeowners Jo and Tim Bennett are about $3000 out of pocket and said they were tired of the bend being treated like the Bathurst racetrack.

But they said they were more concerned about the potential loss of life.

“It is a real fear that we’ll be hit while we are out. We are very conscious and mow the lawns on Sunday afternoons when it’s quiet,” Ms Bennett said.

“You hear a skid or a bang and you look at each other and go ‘here we go again’.”

Rural firefighter Tim Bennett said he would hate to see someone lose their life despite everyone’s pleas for solutions including guard rails near light poles, or speed limit reductions.

As a firey, Mr Bennett said he knew first-hand how hard it was to live with the guilt after a tragedy even though everyone had done their utmost.

The grandfather and volunteer firefighter was out for dinner on the night of the recent crash when he received the alarming call from his captain directing him to head home.

“It will be too little too late when someone actually does come a cropper and it’s a fatality,” he said.

“I guarantee it will happen, especially with the influx of people to the area.

“Every time it happens, we rattle the cage and nothing ever comes of it.”

A bike crashed through the Bennetts fence in 2019. Picture: Facebook/Bruce Bennett

In September, Mr Bennett said a car flipped and rolled through a cattle farmer’s fence and took out the roof of a house.

“We were out there trying to drag him out and trying to keep the cows in the paddock.

“Here we are fighting tooth and nail all because of the [alleged] silly decision to speed,” he said.

“We couldn’t find him because the grass was so long, it was lucky he was conscious enough to call out.”

Federal member for Ipswich Jim Madden told residents the state controlled road clearly needed guard barriers.

Mr Madden said after hearing of the latest crash, he contacted Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey and logged a service request for crash barriers to be installed.

He said he told Mr Bailey about the crashes and asked that the barriers be installed on Rosewood Karrabin Rd near Hospital Rd, Blakes Rd and Trewick Rd, along both sides of the road.

“I also requested that the Speed Committee review the speed limits on this section of Rosewood Karrabin Rd,” he said.

“As well, I requested an update as to my previous request that the road surface be repaired at the rail crossing on Rosewood Karrabin Road, where the old Marburg Line crosses the road.”

Rosewood west of Ipswich, is developing at a rapid pace as multiple housing estates are planned for and near the soon to be gone 'small country town,'. Picture: CMCA

According to Snarl traffic data, which is based off council and government information, 13 of the 20 crashes recently reported on the entire stretch of Rosewood Karrabin Rd (14.9km) were at “suicide corner”.

Also, over the past two years, Queensland Police responded to five serious crashes which had an alleged criminal element, such as dangerous operation and or driving under the influence.