00:01I'm standing here outside Meribah Police Station in Queensland's Fraser Coast region.
00:06Police have just given us an update on this tragic incident that unfolded yesterday afternoon
00:12in Tenena South, which is a small semi-rural community about 10 minutes drive to the south
00:18of here. Police said that around 2.45 yesterday afternoon, the driver of the car, a 36-year-old
00:25Tenena South woman, and her stepdaughter, a 10-year-old girl, had left the home of the
00:31girl's biological father to go to school to pick up the woman's children. When they didn't
00:38arrive to pick up her children, the police called the woman's partner, the girl's biological
00:44father, who then went looking for his family and came across the scene of his partner's
00:51car, a blue Subaru, on its roof, underwater in a dam, and his partner and his daughter
00:58being attended to by the property owner where the dam was located, who was performing CPR
01:04on the girl and her stepmother. Emergency services arrived at about 5.30, and they then took over
01:14those CPR efforts. Police said those efforts were tireless, but tragically, after a long
01:19time, at least an hour of performing CPR, they were declared dead at the scene.
01:25Now, indications, forensic crash unit investigations are ongoing. Police have said currently indications
01:31as to the cause of the crash are possibly speeding or distraction is another possible cause, but
01:39that investigation obviously has a long way to run. Police had a few words to say about
01:45that property owner. The property owner was working on his property. He turned around and
01:50saw his cows had sort of gathered around that dam. He went down to investigate. He got into
01:56water up to his neck. After seeing this car upside down in his dam with just the rear wheels
02:03exposed. He retrieved both bodies from the car and, as I've said, performed CPR on them.
02:11Police had a few words to say about that man's bravery.
02:15That property owner is a hero. I have unconfirmed reports of what he does for a job. I'm not
02:22going to quote it here because I don't know for a fact, but that man was a hero and what
02:26he did was incredibly brave and incredibly traumatic given the fact that that lady's partner was
02:32right with him at the time. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for him.
02:36So the investigation still has some time to run, but it's to be sure that this is an incident
02:42that has really shaken this small, tight-knit community of Tenena South and will do so for
02:48a long time to come.
02:50protocol 762
02:50January
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