It was a roadside rescue that should have taken less than an hour to resolve.
Instead, a stranded Isuzu curtainsider became the most photographed truck in Gatton, and the talk of the regional town, as it sat perched precariously on an embankment as authorities argued over who was responsible for its removal for much of the week.
As we first reported, the driver of the truck had pulled on to the grass verge to avoid running up the back of a line of cars that had come to an abrupt stop on Eastern Drive.
Because the grass was so long – a mower was promptly sent out to rectify the issue the next day – Big Rigs understands the driver didn’t spot the drop-off until it was too late.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads eventually told us it was the registered owner’s job to move it, but the problem with that was the owner didn’t have authority to close what is a busy road during the day.
Due to the increase in ‘rubber-neckers’ along the road, the Gatton police finally came to the resuce and shut the road last night at around 10.15pm on Thursday night.
Big Rigs understands that it took around 35-40 minutes to get the truck back on the road using two heavy tow trucks and from there it was able to safely drive back to its depot. The overhead powerlines never came into play because a crane wasn’t needed and there was minimal disruption to traffic flow.
“They just made a simple task very hard,” said a source who singled out the police for eventually saving the day. “A lot of red tape, a lot of mucking around for no real reason.
“It could have been done and dusted the first night it was there and everything would have been over with in the same time frame with a lot less traffic.”