A toddler is fighting for her life and the rest of her family are in hospital after a boom gate attached to a pace car at a Queensland racetrack failed to retract, causing the heavy metal structure to smash into the crowd.
Emergency services were called to Redcliffe Paceway, north of Brisbane, just before 7pm last night after reports a child had been left with horrific facial and abdominal injuries after the pace car mechanism, which operates as a starting gate and extends out the sides of the vehicle, failed.
It's believed the pace car was driving off the harness racing track when one of the gates failed to close, instead hitting the Kensington Grove family who were watching the race.
A Queensland Ambulance spokesman said four people, a man and woman both aged 39 and two kids aged one and two, were rushed to hospitals across Brisbane.
The man is in a serious but stable condition at Royal Brisbane Hospital with head injuries, and the two-year-old girl is at Queensland Children's Hospital in a critical condition.