Glenwood man pulls child, trapped woman from Curra crash

A Queensland father of six has helped pull a young child from a wrecked car after a serious crash on the Bruce Highway, before returning to help a woman who lay trapped and “unresponsive”. WATCH HIM TELL THE STORY

A heroic Glenwood father has recounted the extraordinary moments he pulled a young child from the wreckage of a serious car crash and then tried valiantly to help a woman still trapped an unresponsive in the car.

Michael Boucher was at the scene when a silver hatchback and black Ford Ranger collided in an horrific crash at the intersection of the Bruce Hwy and David Drive, opposite the Puma service station.

The vehicles were “sandwiched together”.

A woman in her 40s was left trapped in the wreckage of the silver hatchback, while two other women, one in their 50s and one of unknown age, and a child were also involved in the crash.

Mr Boucher was 2m behind the vehicles at the time.

Emergency crews work at the scene of the crash on Bruce Highway near David Drive, Curra on Thursday.

“As soon as it happened I put the handbrake on and ran straight across the road,” Mr Boucher said.

When he opened the “and she was just completely unresponsive, completely knocked out”.

Then he “heard the baby screaming”.

“I quickly opened the backdoor to get the child out and just held her,” Mr Boucher said.

Two other people than arrived at the scene and together they did what they could to help the trapped woman.

A QAS spokeswoman said the woman was flown to the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital after being freed by fireys from the wreckage.

Glenwood resident Michael Boucher was at the scene of a serious crash at Curra, pulling a young child from a car before returning to help a woman trapped in the wreckage.

She suffered a back injury in the crash.

The child, who was reportedly about three years old, was taken to Gympie Hospital for observation, she said, while a woman from the Ford, in her 50s, was taken to the same hospital with soft tissue injuries.

A man from the Ford was uninjured.

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It was the first time Mr Boucher had ever seen anything as serious and “confronting” as the crash.

“I’ve seen a lot of little dings or seen crashes after the fact but never right in front of me,” Mr Boucher said.

It left him “in shock, too”.

“I thought she was dead,” Mr Boucher said.

The woman was flown to the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital after emergency crews freed her from the wreckage. She was taken in a stable condition with a back injury.

“I thought I was looking at a dead person.

“All I could picture was this little child and her mother was in the front seat, potentially dead.

“There was a good five to 10 minutes where she was completely unresponsive and not moving.

“To be that close to something like that is just horrible.

He said it must have been “confronting” for the child.

“She’s been in a car accident and she’s got a stranger trying to get her out of the car, away from her mum.”

Mr Boucher said it was something he “never hoped to see again”.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I was able to help her.”

It was the second crash emergency crews were called to a crash north of Gympie at Bells Bridge earlier on Thursday.

Originally published as Glenwood man pulls child, trapped woman from Curra crash