Witness reveals car was driving up to 180km/h the WRONG way down busy motorway just before horror head-on crash that killed a two-year-old girl and three adults
- Four people including child killed in crash at Redbank, south-west of Brisbane
- Sedan driving east in westbound lanes about 11.15pm on Wednesday, police said
- Crashed into a 4WD – all three occupants, two adults and a child, were killed
- Sole occupant of the black sedan, a 34-year-old man, also died in fiery crash
- Motorist claims she was forced to swerve to avoid the sedan moments before
A two-year-old girl is among four people killed in a horrific highway crash after a man drove his car into oncoming traffic – as a witness claimed she saw the driver speeding at up to 180km/hr before the collision.
The infant and two adults in their 30s had no chance of escape after their SUV burst into flames after the head-on crash on the Ipswich Motorway at Redbank at 11.15pm on Wednesday night.
The 34-year-old driver who slammed into their car while driving the wrong way down the highway was thrown from his sedan, which also caught fire. He died at the scene.
A woman who was driving west on the motorway said she believes she narrowly missed hitting the sedan moments before the deadly crash.
The debris of Wednesday night’s fatal collision is pictured on the Ipswich Motorway on Thursday morning
‘I was travelling towards Ipswich on the highway and just passed Redbank,’ she told The Courier-Mail.
‘Right before the Toowoomba exit I noticed the vehicle travelling towards me. He flashed his lights and was swerving around, he went past me using the right hand lane.’
The woman said the oncoming car appeared to be travelling between 150-180km/h.
She called triple-zero to report the wayward driver, but said by that point it was too late.
‘It would have been not even a minute later the crash happened,’ she said.
Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski earlier revealed first responders only discovered there were three bodies in the 4WD after putting out the fire.
Four people including a two-year-old girl were killed in the collision on the Ipswich Motorway south-west of Brisbane. The scene is pictured after both cars caught fire
A woman who was driving west on the motorway said she believes she narrowly missed hitting the sedan moments before the deadly crash. The crash scene is pictured
‘It’s an absolute tragedy, four lives snuffed out in an instant,’ he told Sunrise.
‘You can only imagine the tragic scene and the chaos that our first responders have had to deal with.’
Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said there would be a investigation into why the driver responsible for the deadly crash was on the wrong side of the road.
‘(It’s) early days yet for us in terms of investigation, clearly those poor people in the four-wheel drive had no chance,’ he said.
The four-wheel-drive’s three occupants – two adults and a young child – and the lone occupant of the black sedan, a 34-year-old man, all died at the scene
‘They were doing everything that they should be doing, driving on the right side of the road.’
All of the Ipswich Motorway’s westbound lanes were closed near the Mine Street exit overnight, before one lane re-opened to traffic at 5am.
The two right westbound lanes were still out of use at 6.30am as road crews repaired bitumen damaged by the collision.
Access has been blocked for motorists heading towards the Cunningham Highway and the Warrego Highway to the west of the crash site.
Queensland Police crash investigators are asking anyone who saw the black sedan before the crash to come forward.
Pictured: The crash site on the Ipswich Motorway at Redbank. The bodies of those who died have yet to be formally identified