Carjacking escalates into fatal three-vehicle collision

Three people are dead after a stolen vehicle was involved in a horrific collision on the Bruce Highway, in an incident that began with a knifepoint carjacking hours earlier in Gympie.

The crash, which occurred in the pre-dawn hours of Friday near Federal, has prompted a major police investigation and an emergency road closure affecting thousands of motorists as authorities piece together what is believed to be a targeted act of violence.

A Gympie woman and her three children were forced from their parked car on Young Street on Thursday afternoon when a knife-wielding man opened the driver's door and demanded the keys. He drove off in her 2019 Isuzu MU-X. Hours later, in the early morning darkness, authorities say the same man was chasing another vehicle carrying a 65-year-old male driver and 25-year-old female passenger—attempting to ram it near exit 244.

The ramming caused both vehicles to cross into the opposite lane, where they collided with a third car driven by a 38-year-old woman heading southbound. All three occupants in the chased vehicle and the third car died at the scene. The driver of the stolen vehicle was the sole survivor, suffering non-life-threatening injuries and now hospitalised under police guard.

Police are investigating what relationship or prior interaction may have existed between the carjacker and the couple he pursued, suggesting this was not a random act of violence.

The collision has triggered an immediate and widespread emergency response. Southbound lanes of the Bruce Highway near Federal remain completely blocked as recovery and investigation crews work the scene. Transport authorities have set up diversions and are warning motorists to use alternative routes, with significant delays expected.

"The road is completely blocked and drivers are advised to use alternate routes where possible," Queensland police said in a statement, underscoring the severity of the closure on this major arterial road.

Witness accounts underscore the devastating scale of the impact. Passing motorist Roshanna Bowman, speaking to media on Friday morning, described seeing one vehicle "completely squished up against the concrete between the two different lanes." She expressed astonishment that anyone had survived at all.

Emergency services remain on scene as authorities work both the investigation and the traffic management challenge posed by the closure. Police have described the carjacker—held in hospital while they piece together the events—as a caucasian male in his early 20s with sandy blonde hair.