(Photo: RACQ LifeFlight)
April 18, 2017
A RACQ LifeFlight crew had to use night vision goggles to gain access to three shooters badly injured when their 4WD rolled on a private property late on Monday night.
A Lifelight spokesperson said the rescue operation, 90km north of Chinchilla, took more than four hours.
The three men had been shooting from their vehicle when the 4WD ute hit uneven ground and rolled 25 metres down an embankment.
The driver – a man in his 50s – had apparently struggled to see the drop off in the ground due to tall grass and the extremely limited visibility at night.
The two men riding in the ute’s tray – brothers aged in their 30s – were lucky to survive after the vehicle rolled on top of them during the crash.
However, the men became trapped down the embankment with emergency service vehicles unable to reach them.
The Toowoomba-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue crew was despatched at 10:42pm and used night vision goggles to land about 5km from the scene.
The crew then worked with Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics and the Mundubbera Rural Fire Service to move the patients.
Emergency services created a pulley system using a nearby tree to pull the patients out of the embankment.
The LifeFlight Rescue crew and QAS paramedics were then able to stabilise the men and move them from the accident site to the helicopter.
The process took about four hours in almost complete darkness.
One of the brothers suffered a suspected broken leg and the other a suspected fractured pelvis. Both men were airlifted in a stable condition to Toowoomba Hospital.
The driver, who suffered suspected hip injuries, was transported in a stable condition by road ambulance to Chinchilla Hospital.
How very fortunate for those survivors. Yet the risk it took for our emergency crew to save those survivors, all because of a ‘shooting hobby’. I’m sure you are all very grateful today. Surely there is a safer hobby where families and communities are not devastated by a possible fatality.