Evelyn Dobbins of Townsville survives horror Bruce Highway truck crash at Helens Hill
A woman who miraculously survived a major truck crash that closed the Bruce Highway for 12 hours is on the road to recovery.
Townsville
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A woman who miraculously survived a major truck crash that closed the Bruce Highway for 12 hours a month ago is on the road to recovery.
Vastly experienced truck driver Evelyn Dobbins, in her mid-50s, remains in Townsville University Hospital after she was critically injured in the shocking accident involving two trucks at Helens Hill south of Ingham in the early hours of August 8.
“The trauma surgeons also reminded us yesterday that mum wasn’t expected to survive her injuries, but she proved them wrong, which they are amazed about,” daughter Rashelle Cameron shared on social media.
“Her fight to stay with us is something I’m deeply grateful for.”
Ms Cameron posted that her mother had been wheeled outside on Tuesday “to get fresh air for the first time since the accident”.
“This experience has reminded me that life can change in an instant, and we need to make time for the ones we love,” she said.
“I regretted not replying to mum’s message the night before the accident, because I was ‘too busy’ – sitting in the ICU, that regret was constant.”
News of Ms Dobbins’ successful fight for life – and the long road of rehabilitation ahead – comes as fresh details about the accident emerge.
It can be revealed that Ms Dobbins was recently employed by Townsville-based haulage contractor Archers Trading and was driving from Townsville to Cairns when disaster struck.
Archers Trading owner-operator Paul Archer said Ms Dobbins did everything right after the air brakes on the truck trailer locked after an issue with the air line and she was able to pull over to the side of the highway at 2am.
He said the very experienced driver, employed at company since May, switched on the hazard lights and “revolving flashing lights”, and deployed the breakdown triangles well behind the
truck before climbing underneath the trailer to ascertain the cause of the fault.
Mr Archer confirmed Ms Dobbins was under the trailer when it was struck from behind by the second truck.
“It pushed the back of the trailer over her, basically,” he said, adding that she did not go underneath the wheels.
“Because she was at the very back of the trailer, the underbar of the trailer went over the top of her.”
Mr Archer said Ms Dobbins was a professional operator who “does everything by the book”, who was due to begin rehabilitation next week.
“She’s back to being her happy-go-lucky, joking around self, she’s just very sore at the moment.”
Queensland Police Service confirmed on Wednesday that the investigation into the accident was ongoing and that no charges had been laid.
Mr Archer, a trucker since 1986 before opening Archers in 2001, said the Bruce Highway was a “disgrace” given its status as Australia’s Highway 1.
“But at the same time, it’s the standard of the drivers that make it worse than what the road actually is.”
He said, however, that the section of Bruce Highway where the accident occurred in dark but clear conditions was “a good bit of road”.
Mr Archer said the accident, one of the latest serious incidents to cause trauma and extensive delays to motorists, had had a detrimental impact on his small business, which had seen a 30 per cent drop in revenue since.
Originally published as Evelyn Dobbins of Townsville survives horror Bruce Highway truck crash at Helens Hill
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