Nat Barr has offered a truck driver a TV reporting job after he recounted the moment he stopped a tradie from assaulting a driver with a metal pole following a multi-vehicle crash.
Brisbane truck driver Stephen Pastor was stopped at the lights at the intersection of Hellawell and Beaudesert roads between Acacia Ridge and Sunnybank Hills in the city’s south on Monday morning.
Mr Pastor, who has been a truck driver for the last eight years, explained what he saw next was the ‘craziest thing he had ever seen’.
His dashcam footage, which he shared with Dashcam Owners , showed a blue Mazda hatchback speeding through the intersection.
The traffic lights were red for 17 seconds before the Blue Mazda barreled into traffic, colliding with a white Toyota hatchback.
The Toyota hatchback did a 360-degree spin before smashing into a red Mazda SUV in the adjacent lane.
All three cars came to a complete stop in the middle of the intersection as tradies rushed to the aid of the driver behind the wheel of the Toyota.
A shocked Mr Pastor is heard yelling ‘holy f**’ before jumping out of his truck and running to the aid of the Toyota driver while calling emergency services.
Impressed by Mr Pastor’s eloquent and detailed recount of events, Barr offered the truck driver a reporting job at Sunrise.
‘Okay Stephen, what a shocking thing to witness and if you need a job as a reporter you can join Sunrise, okay?,’ Barr said.
Mr Pastor replied with a smile: ‘You’ve got my details Nat!’.
Mr Pastor told Barr he was surprised no one died or was seriously injured in the multi-vehicle crash.
‘She [the Toyota driver] was very lucky to escape with some minor injuries,’ Mr Pastor said.
‘If she had have been a couple of seconds earlier, you can see by the vision right in front of you that she would have been T-bone square and fair on the driver’s door there. It is horrifying to see.’
However, it was Mr Pastor’s quick thinking and heroic actions after the crash that stopped a brawl between the offending driver and an angry tradie.
Mr Pastor said he looked over at the red car and spotted the tradie brandishing a metal pole run towards the blue Mazda driver who was walking away from the scene of the crash.
‘I’ve kind of bolted over,’ Mr Pastor said. ‘He [tradie] lifted it up towards his [blue Mazda driver] head.
‘I just said, “Mate”, grabbed him by the shirt and said, “Mate, it’s not worth it. Let the cops look after it.” He looked up at me and shook his head and said, “Yeah, I guess you’re right”.’
Mr Pastor described the incident as ‘confronting’ and said he was glad the interaction between the tradie and the driver ‘did not go any further’.
Witnesses told police the tradie grabbed the metal pole and was confronting the driver as he allegedly hit his car at a nearby supermarket before the crash.
Barr asked Pastor if the tradie was ‘taking the law into his own hands’ but the truck driver said he did not want to speculate or speak on this behalf.
‘Look, I don’t want to speculate, but I guess he was quite angry, which is understandable,’ Mr Pastor said.
‘If you have been hit and someone bolts, your natural instinct, for some people to, is give chase. I guess that’s what the situation he was in.
‘I’m glad that he didn’t use that metal pole any further. I’m not going to speak on his behalf but I can see both sides and where he’s coming from.’
A 26-year-old Carseldine man was charged following the alleged traffic crash in Sunnybank Hills.
Police will allege the driver hit two other cars and ran multiple red lights before the crash at the intersection.
‘It will be alleged at approximately 9.45am a blue Mazda 3 was travelling south on Beaudesert Road when it failed to stop at a red light near Hellawell Road,’ Queensland Police said.
‘It will be further alleged the car then struck two other vehicles, a Mazda CX30 and a Toyota Yaris. The driver of the Mazda 3 was taken into police custody at the scene.’
The man is set face Richlands Magistrates Court on August 6 charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle and driving under the influence.