{"id":936431,"date":"2026-10-22T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936431\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:32:12","slug":"abc-reporter-and-bystander-rescue-man-from-sinking-car-in-floodwaters-near-brisbane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936431\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC reporter and bystander rescue man from sinking car in floodwaters near Brisbane"},"content":{"rendered":"

A driver has been rescued by two bystanders, including an ABC reporter, from his sinking car in floodwaters north of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

The man drove his four-wheel-drive at speed through water on Buchanan Road at Morayfield.<\/p>\n

The car stalled and started to sink.<\/p>\n

\"ABC<\/p>\n

ABC reporter Will Murray swimming to a sinking car in floodwaters. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

ABC reporter Will Murray and another man swam out to the car and pulled the driver out of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

About 170 millimetres of rain has fallen in the area since this morning.<\/p>\n

Follow our live blog for the latest updates on the weather in south-east Queensland.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking after a shower and some lunch, Murray said he is “so relieved” everyone is okay.<\/p>\n

“I saw him drive in and immediately his car started floating downstream so I rang Triple Zero,” he said.<\/p>\n

“On the phone the operator asked me if I could see the driver and if I thought he could get free.<\/p>\n

“Initially I could see him, but he disappeared from my sight within seconds so I made the call to jump in.”<\/p>\n

Murray said he handed the phone to his colleague, camera operator Liz Pickering and started swimming towards the sinking car.<\/p>\n

\"three<\/p>\n

The two rescuers pulled the man from the car just before it went under water. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“Another man quickly joined me and when we got to the car we tried to open the closest door, no luck, then got on the back of the car with the thought to break the back window,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I thought to try the passenger side rear door first and put my feet against the car and pulled as hard as I could and with some luck the door swung open.<\/p>\n

“I think water rushing in helped create some pressure to force the door open.”<\/p>\n

Murray added the driver was then able to make his way to the open door, and the rescuers pulled him to safety and shallow waters.<\/p>\n

“All three of us gave each other a big hug and were just so relieved,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was very scary, but happy everyone is safe and relieved it is OK.<\/p>\n

“I just witnessed how quickly it can go south and it is terrifying, please don’t drive into floodwaters.”<\/p>\n

Queensland Fire Department advises all residents to not swim in floodwaters.<\/p>\n

‘Saved that man’s life’<\/p>\n

Pickering was on scene filming overlay footage of the flooded road when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n

She captured the incident on video as the men rescued the driver from the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\"ABC<\/p>\n

ABC reporter Will Murray and another man pull a man from a sinking car. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“The pair of them definitely saved that man’s life,” Pickering said.<\/p>\n

“No doubt about that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver has been rescued by two bystanders, including an ABC reporter, from his sinking car in floodwaters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101113,503212,5865,210677,43,237363,44,1157,175454,41,39,42,40,503211],"class_list":["post-936431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-abc-reporter","tag-buchanan-road","tag-car","tag-floodwaters","tag-headlines","tag-morayfield","tag-news","tag-rescue","tag-sink","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-will-murray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}