Article: Gateway Motorway chaos after truck crash at Toombul

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Gateway Motorway chaos after truck crash at Toombul

Gateway Motorway chaos after truck crash at Toombul
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Robyn Ironside

May 18, 2009 05:45am

A PETROL tanker and utility have collided on the Gateway Motorway after an incident with a truck carrying a 60-tonne girder, blocking the northbound lanes at Nudgee.
About 3.30am, a police-escorted vehicle carrying a 60-tonne concrete girder braked suddenly to avoid colliding with another oversized vehicle turning into a work site.

That forced a petrol tanker to do the same, but a utility then clipped the bank of the tanker.

The utility driver was injured and has been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The tanker was not ruptured and police praised the driver's actions.

"He's done well to avoid a collision (with the oversized vehicle). That could have caused an explosion," said Sergeant Adam Guild.

The tanker was en route to the Shell Service Station just 500m north of the crash site and will now be towed there to decant its load.

Police are also awaiting the arrival of a crane to transfer the concrete girder to another vehicle - after the truck's brakes were damaged when it stopped suddenly.

Northbound traffic is being diverted off at the Toombul Road exit and back onto the motorway at the Nudgee Road on-ramp.

Motorists are urged to use alternate routes and to be patient while driving in the expected heavy traffic.

Traffic on southbound lanes is not being restricted.

On the trains, maintenance work on overhead power lines at Roma Street station has run overtime causing delays to a number of early morning in and outbound train services.

A Translink spokesman said the work was completed at 5.40am and CityTrain services are now running to schedule.

He said the work was not related to Friday's track fault at Roma Street which affected 70 train services.

"Trains were still coming into Roma Street from Ipswich, Cleveland and Robina,'' the spokesman said.

"The major delays were to the early morning outbound services.''

A Cleveland train, scheduled to leave at 4.30am was delayed for more than an hour while trains to Beenleigh and Ipswich were also held up for half an hour or more.

He said inbound trains were delayed for no more than 15 minutes.