Townsville stolen car crash: Innocent family injured, deeply traumatised

Neighbourhood heroes chased down and captured an occupant of an allegedly stolen ute involved in a shocking car crash that left five innocent victims injured and deeply traumatised.

Photographs taken on a mobile phone in the aftermath of the accident involving an allegedly stolen vehicle and a family car on the intersection of Chandler Street and Douglas Street in Townsville at 6.10pm on Monday. Picture: Supplied

Neighbourhood heroes chased down and captured an occupant of an allegedly stolen ute involved in a shocking car crash that left five innocent victims injured and deeply traumatised.

Brooke Tomkies rejected suggestions on Tuesday that she was a hero in the aftermath of the collision on the intersection of Chandler Street and Douglas Street in Townsville at 6.10pm on Monday.

The mother of four young girls said she was doing the laundry in her Chandler St home when she heard an enormous “smash” involving a Mitsubishi Outlander and the allegedly stolen Toyota HiLux and saw a youth attempting to flee the scene on foot.

“It wasn’t so much me, (a neighbour who lives across the road) is much faster than I am … and once he had held her I ran over to the children in the other car.”

Mother-of-four Brooke Tomkies was quickly on the scene in the aftermath of the collision on the intersection of Chandler Street and Douglas Street in Townsville at 6.10pm on Monday. Picture: Supplied

Ms Tomkies, a bartender who also cares for her disabled mother, said the HiLux allegedly barrelled through the Chandler St, Douglas St intersection, colliding with the Outlander that rolled and landed on its side, while the HiLux crashed into the neighbour’s fence.

All five occupants of the Outlander were taken to Townsville University Hospital with minor physical injuries.

A Bushland Beach woman, 21, has since been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle. She was a passenger in the vehicle.

Photographs taken on a mobile phone in the aftermath of the accident involving an allegedly stolen vehicle and a family car on the intersection of Chandler Street and Douglas Street in Townsville at 6.10pm on Monday. Picture: Supplied

Ms Tomkies, 33, said the occupants were a mother and father, two children who had just finished playing soccer at Melrose Park and a grandmother who was visiting from England.

“All I could hear was blood-curdling screams from this lady (the mother), and she just kept on screaming over and over, ‘my kids, my kids’ … and I was still trying to wrap my head around what I had just seen,” she said.

“I ran straight over to the car and helped all the neighbours get the little girl out, it just broke my heart, it was shattering because I was thinking of my own kids (aged four to 15).”

Photographs taken on a mobile phone in the aftermath of the accident involving an allegedly stolen vehicle and a family car on the intersection of Chandler Street and Douglas Street in Townsville at 6.10pm on Monday. Picture: Supplied

She said she was struck by how composed the little girl was.

“She was just so calm and beautiful, she was saying, ‘my name is (withheld) and my mum’s in there (in the wreckage) and my dad, I just turned four, it was heartbreaking, I was trying to hold myself together and stop from crying.”

Ms Tomkies said the little girl’s young brother was traumatised as he was removed from the vehicle, which had come to rest against a lamp-post.

“He was so distraught as he was looking at his mum, he was saying, ‘my mum, my mum’, and we were like, ‘baby, he’s fine’.”

She said her heart melted when one of her daughters, Georgia, 8, gave the four-year-old victim her favourite teddy to help her through the ordeal.

Photographs taken on a mobile phone in the aftermath of the accident involving an allegedly stolen vehicle and a family car on the intersection of Chandler Street and Douglas Street in Townsville at 6.10pm on Monday. Picture: Supplied

Queensland Police Service said the passenger of the HiLux was taken to TUH, while additional occupants fled on foot.

“Investigators are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed or has dashcam vision of the moments prior to and including the crash to come forward,” a QPS spokesman said.

Ms Tomkies said the area around Melrose Park was a well-known hot-spot for stolen vehicles.

“We are all over it, all the stolen cars come here every night and do burnouts across the road; there are no repercussions,” she said.

“Children play on the street, it’s just sickening … it’s just so overwhelming because there are so many stolen cars and everyone complains, it’s not just us, it’s an everyday occurrence.

“They just have no care in the world for who is on the road, it’s scary … what if there was a child walking on the road, including my 15-year-old daughter, what if they had got caught in that.”

The neighbour, meanwhile, did not wish to be identified but said it was the worst accident he had seen in the area, saying it was lucky that nobody was maimed or killed.

The Bushland Beach woman was refused bail and was expected to appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Tuesday, July 15.

A woman who identified herself as the driver of the Outlander on social media on Tuesday said her family was grateful to the “amazing” members of the community that came to their aid on Monday evening.

“Everyone was so quick to get to us and help us out of the car,” she said.

The victim, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of her children, also thanked Ms Tomkies’ daughter for giving her own daughter soft toy following the collision.

“We will remember the kindness forever.”

Originally published as Townsville stolen car crash: Innocent family injured, deeply traumatised