Sleeping backpacker run over in dunes
By Edmund Tadros
December 19, 2005 - 6:40PM
A backpacker has been run over by a four-wheel-drive in sand dunes on Fraser Island - not realising he had fallen asleep on a driving track.
The 25-year-old British man was run over at
Eli Creek on the island, which is off the coast of
Hervey Bay, about 6.50am (AEST) today.
Creagh Meacham, chief pilot of the Energex community rescue helicopter, said the man and a British woman, who suffered minor injuries, were sleeping away from their
campsite when the "freak accident" happened.
''Four-wheel-drivers tend to drive among the back of the sand dunes, and they offload their tents on the higher ground,'' he said.
''I think what's happened is they've come down in the morning to admire the rising sun, fallen asleep on a track [and] may not have realised they were on a [driving track].
"They obviously didn't hear the four-wheel-drive, which is another sort of freaky part of it, because they were asleep.
"The vehicle has come 90 degrees to
the beach, over the
sand dune and hit this guy."
Mr Meacham said the group of campers seemed "very sensible".
"This guy has not realised the danger he might have been in,'' he said.
"To be honest I don't think anyone else would have realised as
well."
The victim was flown to
Hervey Bay Hospital with a suspected broken arm, fractured ribs and cuts to his head, police said.
A Queensland Health spokesman later described the man's condition as satisfactory and stable.
The spokesman said the man would be taken to the Royal
Brisbane Hospital for further treatment.
Police said no charges would be laid against the driver.
The beach on the island is a gazetted road and camping is allowed in the area, a spokeswoman from the Queensland Environment Protection Agency said.
"People do
camp along there,'' said Mr Mecham. "It was in a reasonably remote area, about four kilometres north of a place called Happy Valley.''
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old Irish tourist has drowned in a hotel swimming
pool on the
Gold Coast.
He drowned at Copacabana Apartments in
Surfers Paradise about 4.30pm (AEST) yesterday.
Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.