This is what happens when you ignore road closed signs – 5 rescued from the roof of their car by SES

Hawkesbury SES were in action in the early hours of Monday after a driver had decided to ignore the road closed signs at Gorricks Lane near Freemans Reach.

Fortunately a four wheel drive SES Unimog crew were at the Crowne Plaza and were called into action. The Unimog has high ground clearance so was able to reverse into the flood waters up to the semi-submerged car.

SES Unimog was called into action at Gorricks Lane in the early hours of Monday…

The incident happened at 1.35am and “the vehicle was a long way into the water” Hawkesbury SES’s Deputy Unit Commander David King told the Post.

The car had floated once it got into the deep waters, said Mr King.

The occupants of the vehicle – a Holden Captiva – had to climb onto the roof of their vehicle and then onto the Unimog because the water was too deep to walk in.

The road closure was signposted but it seems the driver decided to take a risk. The car is still there this afternoon in deep flood water.

Mr King said the unit had been called out a couple of times now to people who had been using Google Maps to work out a route, and he pointed to one incident during this flood emergency on Argyle Reach Road in the same area where the people were stuck for six hours before being rescued.

“Be very careful trusting Google Maps or GPS when there is flooding,” said Mr King.

“The key message here is don’t go around the road closure signs. They still have to take that decision to go past the signs. Don’t do it.”

Gorricks Lane is closed to traffic with around a metre of water still over the road.

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