Traffic chaos as truck hangs off freeway

May 17th, 2013

A man has fallen about 20 metres from his truck onto a road beneath Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge.

A WITNESS has told of the horrific moment a truck driver was thrown 20m out of his cabin after a crash on CityLink that has forced the closure of all inbound lanes on the Tullamarine Freeway.

All lanes from Flemington Rd will be closed “most of the day” while the truck is recovered by emergency crews near the Bolte Bridge.

The Racecourse Rd inbound entry ramp is also closed and traffic is being diverted onto Flemington Rd.

CityLink spokeswoman Selby-Lynn Nicholas said there were traffic delays back to Bell St, 5km away.

All surrounding roads are also heavily affected.

The scene of the crash.

Outbound traffic past the accident is flowing freely.

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The MFB said it will take hours to remove the wreck and clear the road.

A spokesman said the truck was now stabilised, but they were waiting for cranes to remove it.

Paramedics attend to the truck driver where he landed 20m below the freeway. Picture: Garmston Nicole

The truck driver was thrown from his side-window and fell onto Mark St below after the truck collided with a car on the freeway above Macaulay Rd, North Melbourne, just after 6.30am.

The man, aged in his 30s, suffered severe head and pelvic injuries in the crash. He is now in a critical condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

The female driver of the car is in a stable condition at the Alfred Hospital.

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Michael O’Keeffe, of Doncaster East, was on his way to work in Hopper’s Crossing when he witnessed the accident.

A truck hangs off the Tullamarine Freeway after an accident on Citylink. Picture: Mark Stewart

He said the truck clipped the car and shot left into the barrier before rolling onto its side with its wheels hanging over the edge.

“The driver came out of the driver’s side window and fell about 15 storeys down and was lying in a heap,” Mr O’Keefe said.

“I pulled the car up and ran over to see the truck hanging vertically downward and teetering off the edge of the overpass.

“We approached the cabin and saw that the driver was no longer in the vehicle and that he had fallen off the edge.

“We were careful to get too close because we weren’t sure whether the truck might fall off at any point. Two men below me on the bridge were helping him before the ambulance arrived and I saw him move his leg.

“There was diesel pouring out of the fuel tank over the side of the bridge.

“It’s pretty amazing that the driver is still alive. The gouge out of the bridge is about half a length of the car, lucky there were concrete barriers or the truck would have flung off the side of the bridge.”

Herald Sun Head of News Ellen Whinnett is near the scene.

“The truck is barely hanging onto the CityLink overpass,” Ms Whinnett said.

“Inbound traffic is banked up almost to Pascoe Vale Rd and the outbound lanes are slow but are moving.”

CFA, a CityLink response vehicle and ambulances remain at the scene.

CityLink said it will not refund tolls to motorists battling the traffic chaos.

“In this incident we won’t be refunding tolls because the incident is unfortunately beyond our control,” Ms Nicholas said.

“What we are trying to do is give drivers as much information as we can in order to plan their journey and minimise the disruption to their day.”