Police Union president Shane Prior says ‘positive signs’ for officer injured in Warrill View crash

The full extent of injuries suffered by a Queensland policeman injured in a horrific highway crash on Friday has been revealed, as colleagues provide an update.

Emergency crews working to retrieve Senior Constable Tim Leonard from the vehicle after the crash. Picture: 9 News

A police officer and father-of-three who was critically injured in a horror crash on the Cunningham Highway has been brought out of an induced coma but was expected to be in surgery for several hours on Saturday.

Senior Constable Chris Leonard’s police vehicle was involved in a collision with a truck travelling in the same direction as he tried to stop a vehicle at Warrill View, southwest of Brisbane, it is understood.

Senior Constable Chris Leonard has undergone surgery at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Picture: 9 News

He was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a serious condition and was initially placed in an induced coma following the crash which occurred about 12.40pm on Friday.

Speaking on Saturday afternoon, Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior said Senior Constable Leonard had been brought out of an induced coma but was expected to be in surgery for several hours.

“It is with a great sense of cautious relief that I am able to say today that Senior Constable Chris Leonard is showing positive signs,” Mr Prior told media on Saturday.

“He is a very unwell man as of right now but he is in very good care behind me here at the RBWH … It’s no secret that it is a long road to recovery.

“I must admit that we as police and Chris’s family have experienced extraordinary amounts of anxiety since the collision.”

Senior Constable Leonard sustained serious fractures to his legs and arms, dual punctured lungs as well as a significant head injury and remains heavily sedated at the RBWH.

“To the nurse, the off-duty police officer and the truck driver on the scene at the time of the incident as well as paramedics, firefighters, the aeromedical team and of course his colleagues who came to his aid – they are the reasons why Chris got through those first critical hours and got to hospital to seek the help that he needed,” Mr Prior said.

Mr Prior would not comment on the circumstances of the crash or whether footage had been obtained from the wreckage.

“We have specialist police that are currently performing that investigation and they will make a determination as to what caused that collision but Chris is a veteran traffic officer resolutely dedicated to road safety and protecting the Queensland community.

“As a police family it hurts us deeply to see Chris in this way but it hurts us even more to see Chris’ wife and kids who have not left his side experience the stress and trauma that they are experiencing right at this moment.

The truck involved in the accident overturned at the scene on the Cunningham Highway. Picture: 9 News

“We need to give specialist police the time and space they need to do their very important work to make a determination as to why this collision took place … I’m sure in the fullness of time, any footage that is available will become available.”

Mr Prior said Senior Constable Leonard’s family, including his three children, were “enormously stressed”.

“Chris’s wife right now is waiting very anxiously in the hospital, in fact I am going to see Chris’s wife (on Saturday),” he said.

“Police every day go to work knowing that they operate in a very hazardous environment and accidents like this and collisions like this … when a police officer is injured in this manner really brings home the dangerous work that our police do every single day for the community … it’s a harrowing situation.

Police Union president Shane Prior outside the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on Saturday. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“I know that Chris’s phone was dug out of the wreckage and I am aware that that phone has not stopped pinging from well wishes and also his colleagues just making sure that he is okay.”

Senior Constable Leonard works for the highway patrol unit but has been with the Queensland Police Service for 18 years.

He was the only person in the vehicle when the crash happened.

Speaking a short time after the crash, Ipswich Superintendent Kylie Rigg declined to confirm if the officer was trying to pull over a vehicle.

“I’m not aware that there was anything that the officer was responding to, so far as a job or a call to service is involved,” she said.

Originally published as Police Union president Shane Prior says ‘positive signs’ for officer injured in Warrill View crash