A wrecked RAAF semi-trailer lies in the bed of the Burdekin River east of Charters Towers. The ...

Place Oceania: Australia, Queensland
Accession Number P00075.003
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Print silver gelatin
Place made Australia: Queensland, Charters Towers
Date made September 1948
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

A wrecked RAAF semi-trailer lies in the bed of the Burdekin River east of Charters Towers. The vehicle was returning a group of 41 civilian employees to Charters Towers from 8 Stores Depot on the afternoon of 16 September, 1948. The driver apparently swerved to the right to avoid a pedestrian on the bridge, scraping the concrete kerbing on the right hand side and rolling off the bridge into the river bed below. Ten people were killed and 27 injured, two critically. Those killed were Patrick James Hansen, Harold Williams, Edgar Flewell-Smith, Robert George Tait, Joseph Richard Simpson, Thomas Henry Simpson, Henry James Knudsen, John Herbert Delacour, Archibald Campbell and Mervyn Harry Neumann.