By Zak Wheeler For Daily Mail Australia
05:34 05 Apr 2024, updated 05:34 05 Apr 2024
Rescue teams are desperately searching a popular waterway for an unknown number of missing persons after a horror collision between a catamaran and a tinnie left two other men injured.
Police responded to reports of a boating accident at Runaway Bay, a northern suburb of the Gold Coast, around 4:45am on Friday.
A member of the public reported the incident after his 12m catamaran was rammed by an out-of-control tinnie which had earlier hit a channel marker on Broadwater at Southport.
Two men were treated by emergency workers, one aged 34 and the other 36, with the younger man later placed into an induced coma by paramedics.
The 36-year-old swam from the water to Paradise Point before both men were assessed for arm and leg injuries and taken to Gold Coast University Hospital.
Senior Sergeant Peter Venz from Water Police Gold Coast said that emergency crews were actively searching for the missing men.
‘One person, possibly three, have been ejected into the water,’ Snr Sgt Venz said.
‘A fourth person has become seriously injured and lodged in the boat in a position where he couldn’t move.’
Rescuers found the man stuck near his seat and said he had sustained heavy blood loss.
The catamaran’s skipper, David Crossley, told the Courier Mail that he and his wife were woken up by the sound of the tinnie hitting their boat, called Sea Pup.
He said that the smaller boat was ‘revving like mad’ after its initial collision on the waterway and was now going around in circles near his anchored boat.
‘It banged into the boat and I ran up on deck and this thing’s going round and round in circles,’ Mr Crossley said.
‘It didn’t come back, it glanced the boat behind us. Then all of a sudden everything went quiet.’
Mr Crossley said that he could hear a voice from the boat calling for help before he spotted the 36-year-old injured man ‘crumpled’ aboard the tinnie.
Mr Crossley was able to lower his dinghy into the water and reach the tinnie in order to turn its engine off before helping the injured man.
He towed the tinnie 50m to the shore on South Stradbroke Island before calling the authorities to report the crash.
Mr Crossley said the injured man had likely broken his arm and leg and was ‘semiconscious and badly concussed, repeating himself over and over again’.
The man was treated on the scene before being rushed to hospital and placed in an induced coma.
Snr Sgt Venz said investigations were still ongoing and that police were treating the event as a missing persons incident.
Mr Crossley said that before the 36-year-old was taken by paramedics, he had been asking about the three other people that were allegedly also aboard the tinnie.
Rescue workers are still searching for the two other men they believe to have been involved in the crash who may still be somewhere on or around the waterway.
Their operation includes both emergency and civilian vehicles.
Families are helping park rangers scour the South Stradbroke Island area and assets have been sent from Brisbane to assist in the water search.
Snr Sgt Venz has also asked boaties to be on the look out for anything out of the ordinary.
‘Coast Guard and VMR are speaking on Channel 7, 3 and 16 alerting all boaties to be aware that we have a marine incident with possible people in the water,’ he said.