Community in shock, speed ruled out in unusual horror fatal

Police have described the unusual circumstances around a crash near Gympie yesterday that left the 50-year-old truck driver with fatal injuries.  

Police are investigating a tragic and unusual fatal truck crash that occurred at Imbil yesterday afternoon.

IMBIL police officer Bill Greer said as well as being an absolute tragedy, the truck crash that killed a 50-year-old Glenwood man in the Mary Valley yesterday was unusual.

The semi-trailer had just left Imbil's Superior Wood sawmill on Yabba Creek Rd at 2pm and was heading to Gympie with a 23-tonne load of woodchip.

A truck driver was thought to be killed instantly when the semi-trailer he was driving rolled down an embankment on Yabba Creek Rd at Imbil yesterday afternoon. Photo: Frances Klein

Just one kilometre from the sawmill the truck left the road and rolled - landing upside down on the steep embankment that drops down to Yabba Creek.

The driver is thought to have died on impact, Senior Constable Greer said.

The cab of the truck was crushed and the man remained trapped for hours before emergency crews could access the cabin, which was upside down halfway down the bank.

"It's really unusual - speed can't have been a factor," Sen Cnst Greer said.

"He knew the road. The truck would have been going 75/80km an hour at the most and it's an 80km zone."

A truck rolled into an embankment at Imbil. Photo: Patrick Woods.

Senior Constable Bill Greer believes speed is not a factor ina crash that was fatal for a truck driver at Imbil yesterday.

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He said the driver would not have had time to get speed up in the one kilometre after leaving the sawmill, especially navigating the incline of the road leading up to where the truck rolled.

"We are looking at medical and mechanical (problems as a factor)," the Imbil constable said.

Police closed Yabba Creek Rd yesterday afternoon and a recovery team from Clayton's Towing began removing the truck from the bank at 5pm, with several of the road's guard rails requiring removal too.

The truck was not fully recovered until 9.30pm - taking four and a half hours.

If the truck had rolled into the creek, it would have taken days to recover, Sen Const Greer said.

The back end of the upside down truck was partially wedged up against the two trees pictured on the right on Yabba Creek Rd at Imbil yesterday afternoon. Photo: Frances Klein

Woodchip spilled down the embankment when the truck crashed yesterday afternoon. Photo: Frances Klein

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The full load of bark that spilt on to the bank would be left there, he said, a decision approved by the Environmental Protection Agency as it was untreated pine.

No diesel had spilt into the creek, he said.

Sen Cnst Greer said it was the first time he could remember in 15 years that there had been an accident on the road between the sawmill and Imbil.

It was the first fatal in the Imbil region for this year.

Originally published as Community in shock, speed ruled out in unusual horror fatal