Ute plummets onto rail track

A Gympie man walked away from his crushed ute after he lost control of the vehicle on the Bruce Highway and it rolled down an embankment on to the Mary Valley Heritage Railway line.

Craig Warhurst

IF Gary Branson didn't buy a ticket in last night's $20m Lotto jackpot, perhaps he should have because yesterday he was the luckiest man in Gympie.

He got up and walked away from his crushed Holden ute after he lost control in the wet, missed the guide rail and rolled down a drop of about seven metres. The ute landed on its roof right in the middle of the Mary Valley Heritage Railway track that tunnels under the Bruce Highway, just south of Gympie.

Brad Morgan said Mr Branson passed him on the overtaking lane and for no apparent reason veered across the road in front of him and drove over the edge. Mr Branson is an employee of Morgan Engineering and both men were on their way to lunch.

“He can't explain it,” Mr Morgan said as his mate was taken by ambulance to Gympie Hospital.

“Gary has no idea how it happened. It was lucky he only hurt his shoulder.”

Looking at the upturned wreck and the crumpled cabin crushed right down to the door sill, it was hard to believe Mr Branson escaped with just a bit of a bump on his head and an injured shoulder.

It took less than one hour for Greaney's Towing to clear the track. Wayne Ellis said a crane was used to get the vehicle off the railway line.

“We couldn't get it by the train tracks because that would have blown the tyres (on the truck),” he said.

“The vehicle was picked up by a crane and put on the ground, then we pulled it over on its wheels and loaded it onto the tow truck. The way it was done made sure there was no damage to the train line but the initial impact bent the track about a quarter of an inch.”