(Photo: RACQ LifeFlight)
October 4, 2019
Four people were injured – one critically – in a head-on collision on the Wide Bay Highway near Kilkivan on Friday morning.
Emergency services, including seven fire crews, QAS paramedics and police, were called to the crash at Oakview just after 8:30am.
When they arrived, they found a woman aged in her late 70s trapped inside a Mitsubishi 4WD.
The second vehicle, a trayback ute, burst into flames after the collision, sparking a grass fire in the area.
The male driver of this vehicle, aged in his 70s, escaped before the flames took hold.
Bystanders helped to free him from the vehicle.
He was treated for chest and leg injuries at the scene and transported by ambulance to Gympie Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The QFES had to use hydraulic cutting gear to free the injured woman from the 4WD while paramedics attended to her.
She was eventually removed from the wreck at 9:55am and transferred to a waiting RACQ LifeFlight helicopter, which had landed on the highway nearby.
She was flown to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a critical condition with a fractured pelvis and severe lower leg injuries.
The two other occupants of this vehicle, the male driver, aged 79, and a 50-year-old woman, both suffering from bruising and shock, were taken by ambulance to Gympie Hospital.
A QFES spokesperson said the grass fire was extinguished by 10:20am.
At 11:30am, the Police Forensic Crash unit was still at the scene and the highway was closed, with diversions in place.
UPDATE 1:00PM: The highway is now cleared
[UPDATED]
(Photo: RACQ LifeFlight)
