12 injured as outback stagecoach plunges off bridge

12 tourists, including children, were taken to hospital after a stagecoach plunged off a bridge on the outskirts of Longreach in outback Queensland yesterday (Monday 7th July).

Queensland Police told ABC News that four horses pulling the Kinnon & Co. Experience stagecoach were spooked, perhaps by a gust of wind, sending the stagecoach over the side of a bridge into a dry creek bed, a drop of about three metres, in the late morning.

The ABC quoted Dr David Rimmer of the Central West Hospital and Health Service, as saying 12 tourists and both stagecoach drivers were injured and taken to hospital for assessment.

Rimmer explained that several people suffered broken bones, although none of the injuries were life-threatening, some required surgery and victims would be flown to coastal hospitals.

The heritage Cobb and Co stagecoach operates as part of Kinnon & Co’s multi-award-winning outback and bush experiences. Kinnon & Co offers a 45-minute stagecoach ride as part of a ‘Gallop Thru the Scrub’ experience.

Inspector Mark Henderson told the ABC it was “one of those accidents where animals have a mind of their own and they just can’t be controlled.”

Inspector Henderson said the stagecoach had been running in Longreach “for many, many, many years” without any such accident before.

The horses were reportedly uninjured.

Click here to view the Kinnon & Co. website.