Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr has offered a lorry driver a job as a TV reporter after he recounted the moment he jumped to stop a worker from assaulting a driver with a metal pole following a multi-vehicle crash.
Brisbane truck driver Stephen Pastor was at traffic lights at the intersection of Hellawell and Beaudesert roads between Acacia Ridge and Sunnybank Hills in the south of the city on Monday morning.
Mr Pastor, who has been a truck driver for eight years, said what happened next was “the craziest thing I’ve ever seen”.
Dashcam footage shared with Dashcam Owners Australia showed a blue Mazda hatchback speeding through the intersection.
The traffic light was red for 17 seconds before the Mazda careened into oncoming traffic and collided with a white Toyota hatchback.
The Toyota spun 360 degrees and then crashed into a red Mazda pickup truck that was in the adjacent lane.
All three vehicles came to a complete stop in the middle of the intersection.
A shocked Mr Pastor is heard shouting “shit!” before jumping out of his truck and running to the aid of the Toyota driver while calling emergency services.
Nat Barr jokingly offered truck driver Stephen Pastor a job reporting for Sunrise after he gave a detailed and eloquent account of a multi-vehicle crash in Sunnybank, Brisbane.
Mr Pastor’s dashcam footage captured the moment a blue Mazda hatchback sped through a red light and crashed into oncoming traffic (pictured)
Barr was impressed by Mr. Pastor’s eloquent and detailed account of the incident.
“Okay, Stephen, that’s a shocking thing to witness. If you need a job as a reporter, you can join Sunrise, okay?” Barr said.
Mr. Pastor replied with a smile: “You have my details, Nat!”
Mr. Pastor told Barr he was surprised no one was killed or seriously injured in the multi-vehicle crash.
“She (the Toyota driver) was very lucky to escape with some minor injuries,” Pastor said.
“If I had arrived a couple of seconds earlier, as you can see in the image in front of you, I would have been squarely against the driver’s door. It’s horrible to see.”
Mr. Pastor’s quick reaction and heroic actions after the accident stopped a fight between the offending driver and an angry worker who also witnessed the accident.
The driver collides with a white Toyota hatchback, which spins 360 degrees before crashing into a red Mazda SUV in the adjacent lane (pictured)
Mr Pastor said he saw a worker brandishing a metal pole as he ran towards the driver of the Mazda who was driving away from the scene.
“I jumped down,” Pastor said. “He (the worker) lifted it up towards his (the driver of the blue Mazda’s) head.
“I grabbed him by the shirt and said, ‘Dude, it’s not worth it. Let the police handle it.’ He looked at me, shook his head and said, ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.'”
Mr Pastor described the incident as “confrontational” and said he was glad the interaction between the worker and the driver “did not escalate further”.
The pole-wielding worker alleged that the offending driver had hit his car at a nearby supermarket before the collision at the intersection.
Barr asked the pastor if the worker was “taking the law into his own hands.”
“I don’t want to speculate, but I’m guessing he was pretty angry, which is understandable,” Pastor said.
“If someone has run you over and they run away, some people’s natural instinct is to chase them. I guess that was the situation he found himself in.
“I’m glad he didn’t use that metal stick again. I’m not going to speak on his behalf, but I understand both things and I understand his intentions.”
Mr Pastor saw the worker, who was carrying a metal bar, running towards the offending driver (left). The truck driver quickly intervened and stopped the worker, urging him to “let the police handle it” (right).
A 26-year-old Carseldine man has been charged following the crash.
“It is believed that at approximately 9.45am a blue Mazda 3 was travelling southbound on Beaudesert Road when it failed to stop at a red light near Hellawell Road,” Queensland Police said.
“It is further alleged that the car collided with two other vehicles, a Mazda CX30 and a Toyota Yaris. The driver of the Mazda 3 was arrested by police at the scene.”
The man is due to appear in Richlands Magistrates Court on August 6 charged with dangerous driving and driving under the influence of alcohol.
