Rainbow Beach: Holden Jackaroo 4WD is swamped by crashing waves while trying to drive through surf: ‘No common sense’

A driver has been forced to ditch his Holden Jackaroo 4WD after becoming stranded in crashing waves at a popular beach.

Drone footage shows two vehicles trying to make their way around a cliff-face by at Rainbow Beach in Queensland on Tuesday.

While the first vehicle manages to make the treacherous crossing, the second 4WD gets bogged.

The vehicle at one point jolts forward a few metres before getting stuck again.

It is then hit by crashing waves, which rocks the vehicle back and forth.

The driver is eventually forced to abandon his vehicle in the surf.

High tide was forecast around the time the pair were driving on the beach.

Car hire and tourist sites for Rainbow Beach advise those driving 4WD’s to check the tide beforehand.

Social media viewers slammed the driver for taking the major risk of driving through the surf during high tide.

‘Why would anybody with an ounce of common sense decide to drive the beach on an incoming tide,’ said one.

A second wrote: ‘How stupid! Then they’ll expect to be rescued!’

‘What a waste of a vehicle and resources to recover it!’ added a third.

‘Brains are hard to come by,’ joked another.

The vehicle got bogged while following the path of another 4WD driver who made it through the surf

The driver of the Holden Jackaroo 4WD was forced to abandon the vehicle as it was hit by the crashing waves

Footage of the blunder was uploaded to Facebook, where social media users slammed the driver for taking a risk by driving through the surf during high tide

James Stewart, director of Driving Solutions and runs a 4WD driving course, recently told Daily Mail Australia, tow truck drivers have been making a fortune rescuing Aussie blokes ‘with all the gear and no idea’.

‘Four wheel driving is the most dangerous driving,’ he continued. ‘The tracks are a living organism and forever changing due to the weather conditions.’

‘It’s important to get an understanding of what your car can do and what the driver can do.’ 

Andrew Boyd from Toyota Land Cruiser Club of Australia believes many Aussies are buying 4WD’s without being properly informed by dealers on how to safely operate them.

‘They [buyers] take them out of the showrooms. The dealers would not tell these people the different buttons to press,’ Boyd said.

‘They then take them out to the beaches and get into all sorts of trouble.’

David Wilson from Adventure 4WD explained that crashing down or getting bogged while driving on new terrain can be an ‘expensive exercise’ and driver training can help mitigate the chances of a breakdown occurring.

‘Budding travellers can reference plenty of sites that are helpful to offer pointers to vehicle operation and management. That’s good and so too experience sourced from a practical course, the sort of thing we do here at Adventure 4WD,’ he said. 

The incident comes days after Queensland introduced higher penalties for motorists caught recklessly driving in places like national parks and beaches.

Fines for these driving offences were increased by hundreds of dollars last Friday.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) hopes the hike in penalties will result in an improvement in driving behaviour at beaches and parks.