Mid-Triple Zero Call, a Flood Reporter Handed Off the Phone and Swam for a Sinking Ute

ABC reporter Will Murray went to a flooded road north of Brisbane to report on the water. Before long he was swimming in it, on his way to pull a man out of a sinking four-wheel drive.

Murray and bystander Daniel Hainey reached the stranded ute on Buchanan Road in Morayfield, about an hour north of Brisbane, on Thursday 22 October 2026. They got the driver out just as the vehicle went under. Camera operator Liz Pickering filmed the whole thing, and all three men came out of the water safely.¹

The rescue is good news on its own. The ABC is also using the footage to drive home a flood-safety message: don’t drive into floodwater.¹

Calm water, deep enough to sink a ute

Murray and Pickering were covering flash flooding in south-east Queensland. More than 170mm of rain (nearly 7 inches) had fallen in the area.²⁵

At about 10:04am, a driver went past a road-flooded warning sign and into the water. The ute, a Nissan Navara according to 1News, made it about halfway across before it became stranded and began to float.¹²

Some coverage described raging floodwaters. The ABC says the water looked mostly calm. It was still deep enough to swallow the vehicle whole.¹ The driver later told Murray he hadn’t realized how deep it was and hadn’t seen the signage.²

A phone call, then a swim

Murray called Triple Zero (000), Australia’s emergency number, first. About three and a half minutes into the footage, he hands the phone to Pickering and swims toward the car. Hainey follows him in.¹

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

Murray said that to the ABC, as quoted by TMZ.³ He also told the ABC that once it was clear the car was sinking fast, he didn’t stop to think, because the man might have drowned.²

Getting him out took more than one attempt. “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,” Murray said in the ABC’s report.¹

The window didn’t break. So Murray tried another door.

“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,” he said.¹

The driver came out, and the vehicle sank completely right after. According to the ABC, only about 90 seconds passed between the two rescuers entering the water and the roof disappearing.¹ The ABC’s headline says the four-wheel drive was gone in less than six minutes.¹

After the rescue, the three men hugged.³ Pickering, who filmed it all, said the two men saved the driver’s life, according to Newser’s report citing Reuters.⁴

What the experts want drivers to know

The ABC paired the footage with advice from UNSW researcher Dr Amy Peden and Queensland Fire and Rescue instructor Matt Kelemen. Their first rule is simple: don’t drive into floodwater.¹

“The safest car in floodwater is the one that never enters it,” Peden said in the ABC’s report.¹

If you do end up trapped, they advise taking off your seatbelt and winding the window down. They also warned that people who go in after someone risk drowning themselves.¹

Murray, who had the closest view of how fast it can go wrong, kept his own advice short.

“Please don’t drive into floodwaters.”

He said that to the ABC, as quoted by TMZ.³