QLD police drag bus driver from crocodile-infested creek

Police in Queensland have saved a bus driver after his tourist bus crashed into a creek known for crocodiles. Plain clothes senior constable John Dijkstra had little time to think about the dangers that could have befallen him from jumping into the creek to save the driver.

According to Queensland Police, a tourist bus and trailer crashed in Smiths Creek in Fearnley Street around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday. The interior of the cabin was quickly filling with water, with the driver, the lone occupant of the vehicle, trapped inside.

It was fortunate that three plain clothes officers riding a police patrol saw the bus go into the water. One of them, Dijkstra, quickly jumped in, intending to save the driver.

“We saw the bus go into the water and it would have been a matter of seconds and it was almost fully submerged,” he was quoted by the ABC as saying. “It was just good timing; five seconds before or after and I don’t think anyone would have spotted him.

“We heard cries for help, or gurgling, and somebody struggling for breath. Crocodiles were definitely a thought, it crossed our minds and crocodiles have been observed in the past, but our priority was getting him out.”

His two companions stayed on the mudbank shining car headlights into the water to illuminate the bus and to look for crocodiles while Dijkstra swam in to free the 36-year-old driver. It took him several attempts, but he eventually pulled the man from the bus through the windscreen.

The driver told them that he had just made his last drop-off before the accident, and therefore he was alone in the bus. He was taken to the Cairns Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“I’m just glad there weren’t more people in there,” the officer said.

According to Dijkstra, the driver likely swerved off the road to avoid hitting two pedestrians. “There is no indication it was speed or reckless driving,” he said. “He was just doing the best to help them.”

Meanwhile, MP Warren Entsch, member for Leichhardt, has praised the officers for their “brave efforts in a tough situation.”

“It’s a real risk,” he said. “Back in the early 1980s, I took crocodiles out of the same area, so they are around. I think they were very wise to keep an eye out [for crocodiles].”