Police blast dangerous 4WD antics at Rainbow Beach

Police have let fly at a four-wheel driver’s brash behaviour as people sat on the roof and hung onto the side of his vehicle as he sped along a popular Queensland beach over the weekend.

Police have blasted a driver’s brash behaviour as people sat on the roof and hung onto the side of his four-wheel drive as he sped along a popular Queensland beach over the weekend.

Astonishing footage surfaced online of a Toyota LandCruiser travelling with five people hanging on outside the vehicle, as another four-wheel drive drove alongside it at Rainbow Beach on Saturday.

Wide Bay Burnett Police Acting Superintendent Paul Algie slammed the driver of the vehicle over his “stupid driving behaviour”.

Wide Bay Burnett Police Acting Superintendent Paul Algie

“Police received a number of phone calls from concerned motorists in relation to the stupid driving behaviour of a person in a four-wheel drive on Rainbow Beach,” Act. Superintendent Algie told 7News.

“There are so many things that could have gone wrong.

“It only takes a split second for something on the sand and distraction to mean that tyres can dig in.”

Police are working to track down the driver of the vehicle, who is confirmed to be a Belgian tourist.

“It is our intent to turn people that drive like this from drivers into pedestrians,” Act. Superintendent Algie added.

Cooloola Cove resident Derrin Cook, who captured the video of the ordeal, described the stunt as dangerous.

A group of people were filmed hanging onto the outside of a 4WD that was travelling on Rainbow Beach. Picture: Derrin Cook

“I was hanging out at the beach with my son, when I saw this happening, they were doing it back and forth a few times,” Mr Cook said.

“I went up to them and said ‘look, don’t do this s--t’.

“They just laughed at me and kept going, so that was it.”

Mr Cook said it appeared the tourists were filming the escapade for social media.

“I said to the driver ‘mate, I know the chicks are hot and they look good on Instagram and all that.... but it’s not worth doing it for Instagram, it’s all good until someone gets squashed.”

The people were captured filming the stunt for social media. Picture: Derrin Cook

A long-term Cooloola Coast local, Mr Cook said there had been an increase in this type of behaviour recently, with the latest incident following the death of a French student, who died in a horror four-wheel drive rollover near the Teewah Beach campground in November last year.

“I’ve lived here for well over 30 years and I just don’t want to see it get wrecked because of these fools,” he added.

“We’ve all been young and done some stupid stuff, but don’t do it in a place where there’s a lot of other people that can get hurt.

“It’d be a shame for the off-road beach access to get shut down and we are not allowed up there because of these idiots.”

Police are urging those who saw the incident to send through their dashcam footage in hopes of identifying the driver and passengers to Policelink.

Charges have yet to be laid in relation to the incident.

Originally published as Police blast dangerous 4WD antics at Rainbow Beach