Blue HOPE calling for help after freak accident destroys $100k ‘Chuck Wagon’

A mental health support group is calling on the community to help raise funds after their “Chuck Wagon” was recently destroyed in a freak accident in Far North Queensland.

Volunteers escaped the "shocking" accident near Cooktown but their $100k "Chuck Wagon" was a write-off.

A mental health support group is calling on the community to help raise funds after their “Chuck Wagon” was recently destroyed in a freak accident in Far North Queensland.

Volunteers from Blue HOPE, a not-for-profit charity that provides support to current and former Queensland police officers, escaped the “shocking” accident near Cooktown but their $100k “Chuck Wagon” was a write-off.

The serving police were in a vehicle towing the trailer when it suddenly broke free, veered across the Burke Development Road and flipped.

Blue HOPE founding director, Detective Sergeant Andrew Ayres, a police officer for more than 30 years who is also a volunteer, was behind the wheel and said he feared the trailer was going to crash into them at 90km/h.

“The drawbar snapped, and we heard this almighty noise, and I could see in the rear-vision mirror that the trailer – which was thankfully empty – was overtaking us,” Det Sgt Ayres said.

“Then it veered across the road and flipped – and I thought that’s going to be expensive”.

Chuck was bought through donations six years ago and was valued at $80,000 with about $20,000 of solar panels installed on the roof.

The accident has hampered Blue HOPE’s latest efforts to connect with vulnerable regional police.

The wagon was insured but the accident has hampered Blue HOPE’s latest efforts to connect with vulnerable regional police and “potentially help save lives”.

The six-week tour kicked off in Longreach on Anzac Day and had already resulted in about 500 officers taking up the offer of a “free coffee and chat” in Charters Towers, Cairns, Gordonvale, Coen, Aurukun and Weipa.

Det Sgt Ayres said they’d planned to “set up Chuck” at Mt Isa police station later this week.

He said it was hoped money could be raised to purchase a new wagon so they could continue the charity’s important work, which complemented the efforts of the Queensland Police Service and the Queensland Police Union to ensure vulnerable officers can access support services.

“Until the accident, the trip had been a tremendous success – it’s really important to catch-up with police in regional and remote areas because in some ways they can fall through the cracks when it comes to support systems,” Det Sgt Ayres said.

“While law enforcement agencies around the country have their own internal strategies in terms of dealing with mental health and stress in general among police, there is a bit of a reluctance for members to use those services.”

Originally published as Blue HOPE calling for help after freak accident destroys $100k ‘Chuck Wagon’