Motorbike accidents put pressure on services

The ambulance service will discuss the ongoing spate of motorbike accidents with Gap Creek Farmstay.

By Jeremy Sollars

THE Queensland Ambulance Service will contact the owners of Gap Creek Farmstay at Tregony north of Warwick to discuss an ongoing spate of motorbike accidents.
Dozens of injuries to riders visiting the popular venue this year have seen ambulances from Warwick and the RACQ LifeFlight helicopters called multiple times in what some are beginning to see as a potentially life-threatening drain on resources.
Two RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopters flew to Gap Creek Farm within 30 minutes of each other for separate motocross incidents last Sunday, 4 December.
Both the Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast LifeFlight helicopters arrived minutes apart from each other after responding to separate crashes.
The Sunshine Coast crew airlifted a 26-year-old Gold Coast man to the Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital after he suffered a lower leg injury after colliding with a tree on his motocross bike.
The Toowoomba crew airlifted another 29-year-old Gold Coast man to Toowoomba Hospital after he suffered a broken leg when he fell from his motocross bike after attempting a jump.
A spokeswoman for the Queensland Ambulance Service said its Assistant Commissioner would be contacting the operators of Gap Creek Farmstay “to see what can be done to reduce the workload”.
An incident at the weekend partly related to ambulance resources being tied up at Gap Creek Farmstay involved a 13-year-old boy who was injured playing cricket in Warwick around 1.40pm on Saturday.
The Free Times has learned the boy – who was struck in the eye with a cricket ball – was rushed to Warwick Hospital but was forced to wait for more than four hours for an ambulance to transport him to hospital in Brisbane.
The boy suffered a blood clot from the injury with pressure from the clot constricting his optic nerve and causing significant pain.
A source close to the boy’s family, who declined to be named, said hospital staff advised him that one of three available Warwick ambulances had been diverted to Gap Creek Farmstay after the boy’s arrival at Warwick Hospital and the other two were attending incidents at Leyburn and Karara.
“At one stage, after about three and a half hours up there waiting, the staff were talking about putting him in a taxi with a nurse to take him to Brisbane,” they told the Free Times.
“In the end they got an ambulance from Stanthorpe – that was about four and half hours after we first went up there (to the hospital).
“Fortunately he did not require surgery but there was certainly concern about the boy losing his sight.”
The source, who lives at Inglewood, also questioned why Warwick “has three ambulances for 30,000 people and Inglewood has two ambulances with a population of 1000”.
The Free Times contacted Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for comment in relation to injuries at Gap Creek Farm but were advised by a spokeswoman to contact the QAS as “these were not workplace-related injuries”.
A spokeswoman for the Southern Downs Regional Council said the council had not received any formal complaints about any aspects of non-compliance with council’s conditions of operation on the Gap Creek Farmstay venue.
It is understood that council conditions include limitations on the maximum number of riders who can be at the venue at any given time.
The Free Times sought comment from the owners of Gap Creek Farmstay but they had not replied by the time of going to press.