More information was released at a police press conference on Monday about the horror crash that occurred yesterday in Wyaralong that left two children dead and the other four occupants of the vehicle in hospital.  

Ipswich police Inspector Douglas McDonald said the SUV was travelling from Pimpama to Pratten along Beaudesert Boonah Road when the crash occurred.  

“The 2001 Land Rover Discovery was travelling in a westerly direction towards Boonah,” he said

“The vehicle contained an adult male driver aged 23, a female front passenger aged 33 years, also in the vehicle was a five-week-old female infant, a one-year-old male child, a four-year-old female child and a 13-year-old male. The occupants were all members of the same family group. 

“The vehicle appears to have veered to the left and struck a three strand wire road barrier before travelling across the road onto the opposite side and colliding again with the road barrier.”

Inspector McDonald said that the road barriers were designed to collapse in to reduce initial hard impact, however preliminary investigations indicate this may not have occurred. 

“Our initial investigations show that the vehicle has veered into the ones [road barriers] on the left side of the road and for some reason the vehicle has then skewed to the opposite side of the road,” he said.

Inspector McDonald said the angle the vehicle collided with the second road barrier caused it to roll down the stone embankment before flipping into the waters of the Wyaralong Dam. 

The two adults in the vehicle were able to get out of the submerged vehicle themselves and remove two of the children in the car. Passing motorists stopped and assisted in removing the other children. 

Tragically the four-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy were unable to be revived at the scene. 

Inspector McDonald said there was no official cause of death yet for the children, however they were trapped in the submerged vehicle for quite some time. 

“We’ll be relying on the forensic enquiries in relation to the cause of death at this stage,” he said.

“Unfortunately, those two children were trapped in the vehicle longer than the other occupants of the vehicle.

“There was some difficulty getting some of the doors open to the vehicle to extract those kids.”

The one-year-old boy is currently in a stable condition at the Children’s Hospital after he was unresponsive when pulled from the car yesterday and airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.

The five-week-old infant is also at the Children’s Hospital with no serious injuries.  

The 23-year-old male driver and 33-year-old woman passenger are expected to undergo surgery today for non-life-threatening injuries. 

Inspector McDonald said police are continuing to investigate the matter. 

“The vehicle was extracted from the water last night and will undergo forensic and mechanical inspection. 

“It’s very early to say at this stage, alcohol doesn’t appear on initial investigations to be a contributing factor.”

In responding to the crash, a police vehicle also rolled. Inspector McDonald said the officer involved was stable and it was a reminder for all to take caution on the road. 

“That officer is travelling okay, unfortunately the accident occurred on the way to this job.

“It shows how easy it can occur particularly on unsealed roads. 

“Thankfully he was wearing a seatbelt and has relatively minor injuries considering the vehicle rolled and ended up on its roof.

“We encourage everyone to please travel safe and look after yourselves, your families and other road users particularly in the lead up to Christmas.”