Truck driver charged over Bajool highway crash involving army tank

A South Australian truck driver has been charged over a fiery collision which shut down the Bruce Highway in Queensland for a day and injured six people.

An interstate truck driver has been fined following a fiery multi-vehicle crash that shut down the Bruce Highway between Rockhampton and Gladstone for a day and injured six people.

Charita Upasakage, 40, from South Australia was charged with “failing to keen a safe distance between vehicles”.

In chaotic scenes, fires broke out and explosions erupted when multiple vehicles towing caravans, a truck with an Army tank on the trailer and cars collided.

The railway line was also closed down for some time.

Crash on the Bruce Highway at Bajool on July 19, 2023. Picture: Contributed

The crash was reported to emergency services at 11.25am near Bajool, 24kms south of Rockhampton, on July 19.

When police officers arrived at the scene three vehicles were on fire and another four were extensively damaged, including a B-double truck, a semi-trailer (carrying the military tank) with an escort, a flat-bed truck carrying two caravans, three cars and a 4WD towing a caravan.

Firey scenes of the Bruce Highway crash at Bajool on Wednesday July 19, involving three trucks, one with an Army tank loaded on the trailer, and four vehicles.

The Army tank, a M1 Abrams, was to be involved in the 10th Exercise Talisman Sabre and had been offloaded from a ship at the Gladstone Port.

Police promptly set up a 500 metre exclusion zone and the highway was shut, causing drivers heading north or south to divert three hours through Biloela or wait it out.

The driver of this truck towing the caravans has been charged following the crash at Bajool on July 19 2023.

The highway did not reopen until the following afternoon and was initially reduced to one lane and 40km/h.

The cleanup was extensive and a bobcat was engaged to work in the scrub on the sides of the highway and skip bins full of debris were loaded on the backs of trucks.

The Bruce Highway reopened to a single lane of traffic as work continued to clear and repair the road where the crash happened near Bajool. Photos: Geordi Offord

Police said at the time it was “simply incredible” there were no fatalities in the explosive crash.

A total of six people were treated by paramedics, one in a serious condition and the rest all stable, taken to Rockhampton and Gladstone Hospitals.

Photos from the scene of the fiery crash.

In a statement on Friday police said the matter was finalised in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court in September 2023.

Upasakage was fined $1000 with no conviction recorded.

Police investigations into the incident are ongoing.