A car and a caravan have been engulfed in flames while driving down Queensland’s Cunningham Highway.
While everyone managed to escape the burning vehicle, a woman in her 30s was reportedly burnt on her legs and arms. A teenage girl also suffered minor burns.
Both the car and caravan were completely destroyed in the blaze, which happened yesterday morning at Cunninghams Gap, east of Warwick.
A spokeswoman from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services told the Toowoomba Chronicle that fire crews extinguished the flames upon arrival.
Both the injured woman and teen were transported to Warwick Hospital in a stable condition.
The Cunningham Highway was closed to traffic for about two hours following the drama.
The cause of the blaze is being investigated.
Glad everybody is ok bit can somebody tell us what caused the fire please
This was most probably caused by travelling with a gas operated fridge running. When will caravan travellers appreciate the dangers in doing this.
Oh, that explains it all ……… probably
Great to hear that no one was seriously injured.
The vehicles can be replaced.
A life can not.
It would be nice to know the results so all caravaners konw what to look for
We were on the gap when this happened. Waiting till the road opened. We are in a bus turned into a mobile home. Listening to the radio of all the comments from the truck drivers complaining about people driving on the roads with caravans and rvs etc. The roads are for all people to drive on. … no once did i hear anyone askings if the people were ok…
Just saying
Bet there wasn’t any derogatory chatter from the truck drivers community when the petrol tanker went up on the Barkley Hwy.
There are some real morons behind the wheel of some of these trucks.
They give the rest of the truckies who do the right thing a bad rep.
I think this very unfair to mention this particular truck accident. This truck driver has been driving far too many year for criticism. Has seen some inconsiderate, impatient drivers that DO some stupid things. Who in their right mind want to overtake a truck with 3 trailers. NO just some idiots do. So back off the TRUCKIES they can only do their jobs to best of their ability. And can do without idiots
My hubby drives interstate, has done for the past 25yrs for a living and everyday i worry about him on the roads. I had to follow him home for 4 hrs last night coming back from melb to east gippsland and my god some people in cars obviously going away for easter are absolute idiots.. the things he tells me every day about car drivers just makes my blood boil. We nearly both got cleaned up last night when just coming into our home town ‘ Bairnsdale ‘ some absolute idiot decided hed overtake us both on a blind lefthand corner on double lines in the dark, i could not believe my eyes… had there been a car comin towards us we would have all been killed, i can honestly say some car drivers are the worst on our roads, and our ‘truckies’ have to put up with that shit every day.. im glad all in car and van were all ok.
Yea , would be good if the truckies kept to the damn speed limit and stopped tailgaiting families.Get the truckies off drugs would be a good start.dont die for a DEADLINE.
That’s exactly why I gave driving away after 28 yrs. Too many uneducated idiot drivers on the road. I didn’t want to be involved or attributed to a road statistic. I came too close way too many times from other drivers poor decision making, inexperienced driving or lack of brain cells.
Most Grey Nomads are retired so they have all day to get where they are going TRUCKIES don’t so give them the room to move past
Agree, when we’re travelling & see truck coming up behind, we stick to speed limit & pull over when safe, if we’re on the speed limit, so should the truck be, most truckies are responsible
Agree, when we’re travelling & see truck coming up behind, we stick to speed limit & pull over when safe, if we’re on the speed limit, so should the truck be, most truckies are responsible, glad the people involved in fire are OK
very selfish comment. Grey Nomads would be pulling over every few minutes with all the trucks on the highway. And some of them will just run you off the road to get past.
Here here and they r working
Brian, irrespective of whether grey nomads have time or not, there is no excuse for truckies tailgating other drivers.
I am.not a grey nomad, but a terrified when driving in a small car and a huge tanker is going above the speed limit and tailgating me.
It’s happened many times.
You guys are putting peoples lives at risk and its everyone’s road. Change lanes and drive responsibly
And that’s on a freeway with multiple lanes.
O
I
That is the reason why We need more rail transportation for long distance halls especially to the north of western Australia.
Who wouldn’t if you have 3 trailers it’s obviously outback and overtaking opportunities arise obviously use care. Previous reply was about the idiot truckers out there not the sensible ones just trying to do their job as U refer to. Every sector has its rough element. Personally I’ve never had a problem with a road train driver over many kilometres of outback driving. Mutual respect goes a long way.
Some Truckies are equally to blame on causing dangerous situations where a B Double passed us on a no passing line on a crest and we are a MH towing s SukTuk at 11.5 meters long. Go figure
I was commenting on the inconsiderate chatter from some truck drivers complaining about cars and caravans following this most unfortunate event.
This had nothing to do with how someone was driving but as I have found over the years, there seems to be a handful of truck drivers who think that they own the roads.
Fortunately they are in the minority as the majority are professional drivers and act that way. The minority give the rest a bad name just as the odd caravanner does to the rest.
So true!Most people are considerate but there always a few who give everyone a bad name
Glad only minor injuries. Ditto. Could someone please tell us the cause. I lost my motorhome in a fire last year, never found cause. I was blamed as was cooking up front of vehicle, fire started down the back!!
Please advise us as tp rhe cause of this accident, so that others can be aware of this and make sure it dpsent happen tl tbem
Did they leave gas cylinder turned on????
Problem is that there are no old truckies left any.more. These new truckies don’t remember the days when the trucks were slow and held every one up. But it’s easy to knock truckies, they make so much money the retire early to live in the pacific islands. The rest of us travel around Aussie.
Is
Hi all fire started under the prado 120 petrol series going up hill with family towing exspanda 17.56 . Car burned first out of control and slowly took our jayco. Burns happened as my wife jumped out of car and watched kids jump through the flames to escape inferno .there was nothing abnormal till I spotted right rear tyres surrounded by fire pulled over and straight out . Thanks to all that helped out Vehicle and trailer is covered by insurance unfortunately contents only to $500 .looking back we would have seperate contents insurance .
Glad you’re all safe.
Don’t let the trolls comments get to you.
Glad your all ok mate .
We’re setting off on the big lap after xmas .
Jeep Grand and a Billabong 17.6 .
Fully insured !!
Probably better off with a good vehicle not sure the jeep is leagal for towing anything more than two tonnes
Jeep GC is good for 3.5 tonnes,, Better for towing than a lot of other stuff out there
Glad to hear you are all ok unfortunately accidents happen, you can replace material stuff but not life, good tip on contents insurance. Safe travels when you get going again.
Thank you steve for letting us know what actually happened and glad to hear no one was seriously hurt.
Safe travels in the future
Tks Steve for the info about the cause of the fire. Also the tip for contents Insurance which I haven’t got but will now do so.
I have been towing now since 2006. All the best for the future. Lorna
The 5 % rule is alive and well. 95% of all drivers do the right thing.
The others possibly drug,alcohol or just plain dumb as dog s..t make our travelling lives difficult.
Suggest we all take a deep breath and consider how fortunate we all are and not abuse the privilege.
Glad you are all ok.
Lives can’t be replaced but possessions can.
Hope you are all safe and can be back on the road soon..
Not all truck drivers are drug riddled zombies, they are good people trying to mak a living. Likewise not all drivers of vehicles towing caravans are dottery old fools. Some are retired and some are enjoying a break. Accidents for whatver reason do happen. Try to drop the anger and think objectively.
Just call up the truckie on Channel 40 and let him know you will call him past when it is safe. Most truckies appreciate it. Hubby is a retired truckie with over 49 years of driving trucks and realizes they have a time schedule to keep, we have all day. Give them a break, they work hard
Glad you are all ok.
CIL dose a contents to what ever value you want
We have been traveling Australia for some years and they are great.
We were in the road last year and we were lucky that it did not happen to us as our wiring was not earthed properly.we also respect the truckers as they are always willing to help you they are not always cowboys that people make them out to be. Some of these people on P plates and backpackers are the worst on the road
We are learning to caravan over last 6 months, i have mounted a camera ‘full time’ in the back wheel on the van so i can watch what is behind us and take any action necessary. So far so good. A few drivers have ‘tooted’ after i have pulled over to the left etc, not really necessary as i am happy to do it, we are not in a hurry, ie we are ‘retired’. Glad no loss of life in the above accident.
Hope you also have towing mirrors as well Mirrors are a legal requirement and a camera does NOT replace them
Glad you are all right Steve so good to hear it was mechanical problem not human error .
But as for comments about speeding trucks think again most by far are speed limited to 100km/h yes there no doubt a few that are not , but I will bet you Heaven to Betsy that your car Speedo is reading around 5km/ h ( most between 3 and 8 km/ h have seen them 10 out ) faster than you are actually doing hence the reason you think that trucks are speeding when in fact you are the problem, please check your speed with a Gps or smart phone app ,
Too right. Australian Design Rules permit manufacturers to fit speedometers that can over read by 4kph + 10%. It can’t show a speed less than you are travelling but the other direction error is okay. So your speedo could show 110 but you may only be doing about 95 km/h. And each manufacturer with each model and each year could be different. Older cars pre-2006 that are still on the road can be +/- 10% each way, too. If you think about it… it could explain a LOT of the road rage incidents that occur typically caused by people losing patience with other drivers, who legitimately could think they are doing the speed limit. Perhaps time for ADRs to change and hold vehicle manufacturers to a higher standard of accuracy.
Agree about trucks tailgating. A few months ago I was travelling north of Woolgoolga, keeping to maximum roadworks speed limit over 20km stretch of road, truck tailgating me the entire way. Near the end he got impatient & blasted his horn, presumably to move off the road so he could pass, I wrote to the truck company with his rego number etc but never had a response. I have now installed a video camera recording tailgaters. Hopefully if more people report the lunatic trickies then they will be cautioned, or removed from their jobs & off the roads after several reportings.
Joan I have only one question for you, have you checked your speedo for accuracy
I know that my Land Cruiser speedo is around 5kph out at 100 kph so I use a GPS ‘heads-up-display’ AND I have been tailgated numerous times by trucks – particularly through road works.
I do pull over to let others through but I find it amazing that someone will give you a blast as they go past while they on the other side of double lines
There is good and bad in all of us. We drive a small motorhome and are very aware of working truck drivers. In most cases, the truckies indicate their gratitude when we pull over, allowing them time and room to overtake us. However, we often experience dangerous car drivers over taking on double lines!!
What caused tthe fire?