Car smashes through Glenorchy Plaza shopping centre glass window

A 75-year-old Hobart woman is thanking her lucky stars after a car smashed through a shopping centre door a mere metre from where she was standing on the travelator. PHOTOS + VIDEO >>

• Man buried under four tonnes of sawdust
• How fireys prevented explosion at Casino silo blaze

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Car crashes through shopping centre

A 75-year-old Hobart woman is thanking her lucky stars after a car smashed through a shopping centre door a mere metre from where she was standing on the travelator.

Initial investigations suggest the crash was as a result of driver error. Photo: Sergeant Tim Etheridge

Police and emergency services responded after the vehicle crashed into a sliding door at the Big W car park in Glenorchy just before midday.

Wendy Andrew of Berriedale, 75, was on the travelator on the way to the ear clinic when the car came crashing through the glass and onto the travelator.

“I was just on the escalator and I heard this big bang and I looked and all this glass had smashed around me and it was all on my hands and my chest and on the floor and around me,” Ms Andrew said.

A car crashed through the glass sliding doors at Glenorchy Plaza. Photo: Jarrod Lawler

“Then I looked and there was a car about a metre away from me.

“I was just so stunned but thankfully my number isn’t up today.

“It cut me up a little and I had glass all over me but the ambulance officers fixed me up.”

Ms Andrews was treated for cuts on her hands and also suffered some minor cuts on her face and feet from the glass.

A car crashed through the glass sliding doors at Glenorchy Plaza. Photo: Jarrod Lawler

No was injured in the incident, including the single occupant and driver of the vehicle.

Initial investigations suggest the crash was as a result of driver error.

A car crashed through the glass sliding doors at Glenorchy Plaza. Photo: Jarrod Lawler

Man engulfed by grain as he prepared to unload into silos

Saturday, July 3:

IT took an hour for Tasmania Fire Service rescuers to free a transport worker being crushed in a shipping container of grain at the Devonport wharf on Friday.

The man – who worked for Phillip Murray Bulk Haulage, which delivers grain to Tasmanian Stockfeed Service’s silos – is recovering from back and crush injuries in the Launceston General Hospital.

“They are still running tests and there are more scans to be done before the extent of his injuries are completely known,” company owner Phillip Murray said.

“We have been delivering thousands of containers to the silos over 15 years and this is the first time something like this has happened.”

Firefighter Gary Johnson said the driver became engulfed with grain when he opened the shipping container on the back of the truck ready to feed it into the silos.

“The grain rushed out and hit him and pushed him against a beam. He injured his back and was then stuck in grain up to his waist,” Mr Johnson said.

The truck in which the driver was crushed at Tasmanian Stockfeed Service's Devonport silos.

Mr Johnson said the rescue operation was technical but firefighters understood how dangerous grain could be and trained for such situations.

“A member with experience in trench rescue was rostered on and he put his skills to good use,” he said.

“Paramedics had already arrived on the scene when we got there and the man had been stabilised.”

A dam was created with pieces of wood and a large vacuum used to suck some of the grain out from around the crushed man.

“The bar he had hit and injured his back on then needed to be cut out,” Mr Johnson said.

“Because of the fire danger, we needed to use water suppression and the patient was protected with a fire blanket. We then managed to dig him out.”

Off-duty TFS crews needed to be called in to man the Devonport Fire Station while the grain rescue was carried out.

Tasmanian Stockfeed Services manager Trevor Macleod at the company’s feed mill at the Devonport wharf. Picture: GRANT WELLS

Tasmanian Stockfeed Services manager Trevor Macleod said initial reports made it sound like the man was stuck inside one of the company’s silos.

“This was not the case. It was a subcontractor and a shipping container on the back of a truck,” Mr McLeod said.

He said operations were continuing as normal at the site as a Workplace Safety investigation is carried out.