Truckie Allan Smith remembered after Brisbane River tragedy

A friend has paid tribute to the man killed when his car plunged into the Brisbane River in the city’s southwest, revealing he was suffering from dementia.

A man died after his car plunged into the Brisbane River in Brisbane's southwest. Picture: Andreas Nicola

A Queensland man who died when his car plunged into the Brisbane River has been remembered by his best mate of 20 years as a ‘happy-go-lucky’ character.

Allan Gregory Smith, 69, was located in his car 2km from the site where his car plunged into the Brisbane River near Moggill Road Ferry around 6.45pm on Monday.

Crews including specialist police, swiftwater rescue and other agencies spent hours searching for the vehicle, which was found about 11.20pm.

Petrie Dever, Allan’s friend of 20 years, told The Courier-Mail he was with Mr Smith the night before the accident and the pair were planning a fishing trip.

Allan Gregory Smith, 69 was located in his car 2km from where it entered the water. Photo: supplied

“He was a very happy guy and always laughing and cracking jokes. We were supposed to go fishing,” he said.

“He wasn’t very good at it, whenever he would break a line I’d have to put new hooks on it for him.

“We would sit there and go fishing, we would pull out the camp chairs, he would nod off while holding the fishing rods. One time I had to jump in the water to get it and it had a decent size fish on it.”

Mr Dever said Allan had suffered from dementia and was “still processing” what had happened after receiving the call from police that his body had been located.

“I’m still processing what is going on, I am the one who has to clear out his place where he was living. A lot of stuff there. Memories, we had good times there,” he said.

Allan was a truck driver who’d moved from Penrith in Sydney to Queensland, and met Mr Dever after lending a hand to fix his car.

“I actually met him when he was going to servo and he was following a truck and brick came off the truck and punched a hole in his fuel tank and I was following behind and we pulled into the servo, towed his car in and put a new tank in for him,” he said.

“And we started becoming friends as our kids went to the same school.

“We love trucking all the way to Bundy, Gladstone, Sydney – it was probably one of our favourite things to do,” Mr Dever said

A Queensland Police spokeswoman said investigations into Mr Smith’s death were continuing.