Driver flees, disabled woman trapped after crash

Jacqui Clatworthy

19Jan08

A MAN believed to be associated with the Finks motorcycle gang fled an Eagle Heights accident in which a disabled woman was severely injured and trapped after he crashed a luxury Mercedes Benz into another car.

Two women were left behind in the Mazda 323 Astina involved in the head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz sedan linked to prominent Fink Gregory John Keating on Tamborine-Oxenford Road around 6.45am.

Bruce Thorsby, who was driving in a van behind the Mercedes, said he saw the man approach the vehicle after the collision before leaving the scene.

"He did go over and ask how these people were," said Mr Thorsby. "He was straightaway on the phone."

"I went up the road to slow the cars down but the guy driving the Merc just wandered away."

The 52-year-old Mazda driver had minor injuries but her 31-year-old daughter, who has spina bifida, had multiple fractures.

It took more than an hour for authorities to pull the disabled woman from the wreckage at the remote, Hinterland site.

An ambulance crew then rushed the women to the Gold Coast Hospital for treatment.

Mr Thorsby had tried to warn the driver and the oncoming car of the looming danger after observing him swerve erratically.

"The driver of the Kompressor was twice looking toward the passenger seat and veering off the road," said Mr Thorsby. "He was on the wrong side of the road for 30m.

"I tried to alert them by beeping the horn but they ploughed straight into each other."

Constable David Paddock from Coomera Police Station said the Mercedes was linked to the Finks organisation.

"We don't know who the driver is, however the car relates back to a bikie organisation (the Finks)," said Constable Paddock. Items belonging to Mr Keating were found in the car including a traffic infringement notice for travelling at 120km/h and a letter addressed to Mr Keating from Caldicott & Co, a legal firm in Brighton, South Australia.

Mr Keating is remanded in custody after allegedly slashing a Gold Coast man in the face with a broken bottle at the Berlin Bar, Surfers Paradise, on Christmas Eve.

There is a possibility the driver was looking after the car on Mr Keating's behalf.

The front man for the motorcycle club is still under investigation for his alleged role in the 'ballroom blitz' shooting involving Finks and Hells Angels members in 2006.

Mr Thorsby said he believed the male driver was speeding when collision occurred.

"He wasn't moving that fast but he was probably 10km/h over the limit," said Mr Thorsby.

After hearing Mr Thorsby beep the horn on his van and a 'big thud', local resident Chris Ford raced out to the scene.

"I was getting ready for work," he said. "I saw the young driver who fled; he walked off up the road with a packet of cigarettes and a phone in his hand.

"There was so much activity here that we did not realise he was the driver of the Merc."

Another Eagle Heights resident, Kevin Litchfield, brought towels out to the trapped victim.

"Every day people are speeding," said Mr Litchfield.

"Even when we were stopping the traffic (for the accident) people didn't want to stop."

The father of four said many accidents occurred along the leafy stretch.

"Every one of our neighbours has told the police to put a camera here," he said.

"We get trucks along here at 100km/h plus and coaches doing 100km/h plus.

"We were going to get together and put signs along the road saying 'slow down'."

A senior constable at the scene said he had attended a fatal accident at the same spot five years ago.

The speed limit on the stretch, which dips at one point and is close to a pub, is 60km/h.

Two male motorcyclists died in separate accidents on Tamborine-Oxenford Road last year.

Police described the driver as being in his late 20s to early 30s and about 183cm tall, with short black hair and an olive complexion.

He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt with white writing on it and black jeans as he walked along Tolima Drive.

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