A woman and her four children have died in a fiery head-on crash south of the Queensland town of Kingaroy.

The woman and the children were in a Nissan station wagon trying to overtake a truck at Kumbia on the Bunya Highway just before 7.30pm on Monday, police said. The car hit another truck heading in the opposite direction, resulting in both vehicles catching fire.

The victims were unable to escape the flames, police said. Paramedics called to the scene at Kumbia were confronted by fire, with the two vehicles alight and nearby grasslands also burning.

“This is a catastrophic incident scene, it’s certainly one of the worst accidents I’ve ever seen,” a police spokesman said at the scene. “It’s just a tragedy for everyone involved,”

The woman, 35, died at the scene, along with three of her children. A fourth child – a girl who had suffered horrific burns – died as she was being flown to a Brisbane hospital.

The children were all under 10.

Ambulance Service assistant commissioner Stephen Zsombok said paramedics faced a daunting scene, with victims trapped inside the burning car.

“These are very seasoned officers and they’ve explained this as tragic, extremely traumatic, with people obviously involved in the car that’s caught fire,” he said.

“Smoke, fire, our officers have gone though that dangerous scene to get to the child they were able to work on ... Unfortunately that child died.

“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of those people.”

Police say the family was from Eli Waters at Hervey Bay, about three hours’ drive from the crash scene.

The 47-year-old truck driver managed to free himself. He was taken to hospital with “multiple injuries”, but his life was not in danger, the ambulance service said.

Kumbia resident Kate Curtain, who lives close to the crash site, told Guardian Australia the community was in mourning.

“As far we know, the person wasn’t known to us, which doesn’t make it any less sad. It’s all very sombre.”

Brian Lenihan said he owned a shop on the highway but had not seen the crash. “We’re terribly sad,” he said. “The road has been shut, the school bus has all been held up. There has sort of been nothing happening since night. It’s a terrible tragedy.”

Cheryl, who works in a nearby hotel, said she heard the emergency services go past to the crash scene.

“I was just here when all the ambulances went through last night. I knew it was big because there were so many vehicles.”

On Tuesday morning the forensic crash unit was investigating and the highway remained closed at Kumbia, just south of Kingaroy.

“We will certainly offer whatever support we can to not only to the first responders on scene but also to the family,” Insp Graeme Paine told the ABC.

“This is a tragic incident scene, the extent of devastation that will come from an incident like this not only for the family of the people involved but also the community.”

In Victoria, four people died on the state’s roads on Monday night, including a woman who died in a hit-and-run crash. A 31-year-old man from Cairnlea surrendered to police on Tuesday morning after the woman, believed to be in her 20s or 30s, was killed in the crash in Melbourne’s west.

The victim was allegedly hit by a black Holden Commodore on Ballarat Road, Ardeer, before her body was found about 7.40pm on Monday. She was yet to be formally identified.

In other crashes overnight, two people died at Mt Eliza on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula about 11.15pm. The incident unfolded on the Nepean Highway, when a north-bound vehicle hit an oncoming vehicle. The driver, a 22-year-old Heatherton man and 18-year-old female passenger from Pearcedale, died at the scene. The driver of the other vehicle was taken to hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Earlier, a 31-year-old Red Cliffs man was killed when the car he was a passenger in crashed into a pole at Red Cliffs near Mildura, about 8.45pm. The driver, a 39-year-old man also from Red Cliffs, was taken to hospital in a critical but stable condition. The other passenger, a 38-year-old Red Cliffs man, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.







