Man dead after horror crash

The Bruce Highway was closed for five hours after a crash which killed a 50-year-old New South Wales man on Saturday.

Supplied By RACQ - CQ Rescue

A MOTHER and child are fighting for their life and a man is dead after a horrific car crash north of Rockhampton on Saturday.

A Kia Carnival station wagon travelling north and a Hyundai Excel hatch travelling south collided head-on along the Bruce Highway at Kunwarara, 85km north of Rockhampton at 4.51pm.

The woman was the driver of the station wagon with her four children were passengers when the crash occurred.

The force of the impact caused the station wagon to flip and the hatch was sent off the road and into an embankment.

The driver of the hatch, a 50-year-old Northern New South Wales man, was killed instantly.

His only passenger, a woman, was flown to Rockhampton Hospital with serious injuries.

The mother in the station wagon was also flown to Rockhampton Hospital with serious injuries and yesterday morning was flown to Brisbane for further treatment.

Her five-year-old child was immediately flown to Rockhampton Hospital with life-threatening injuries before being airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to a Brisbane hospital just hours after the crash.

Yesterday the child was in a critical condition in the intensive care unit.

The actual extent of their injuries was not known yesterday.

Both the Mackay-based RACQ – CQ Rescue helicopter and the Rockhampton-based RACQ Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service assisted in transporting patients to Rockhampton Hospital.

The Bruce Highway was closed in both directions until the scene could be cleared at 10.30pm.

Police officers from Marlborough and Rockhampton attended the scene, as did the Forensic Crash Unit.

Yesterday the crash unit could not confirm how the crash occurred.

However, CQ Regional Traffic Co-ordinator Inspector Mike Curtin said fatigue would form part of their investigation. He said fatigue-related crashes had been highlighted in the Marlborough area recently.

Road toll

2010: 24 people were killed on our road so far this year

2009: 55 people died on our roads last year

Remember the fatal four – speed, seatbelts, fatigue and driving drunk