A police officer has been criticised for allegedly leaving a man dying on the ground just metres away from a horrific car crash in Queensland.
Horrified witnesses begged the officer to stay and help search for the driver who flipped his car and crashed into a paddock, landing on its roof with the engine still running.
However, according to locals, the policeman left after 15 minutes, telling them he had to attend another crash and believed the driver must have left the scene with his friends.
Just hours later friends found the driver's body, 25-year-old Jayson Omambac, allegedly metres from the crash after being flung from the car.
A woman from the property Omambac lived at told the Courier Mail that they were denied the chance to help the Filipino man who was in Australia working to support his young son and partner.
"What if we could have held his hand while he was dying?" she said.
"We just felt so bad."
She thought it was strange there wasn't much of presence at the scene to search for the missing man.
"They should have called a search - we have SES here, the fire brigade. They could have searched for him," she told the paper.
A workmate of Omambac's said she could not understand why there was no search for him.
"I understand the police station was undermanned but it doesn't really excuse it," she said. "His smile was infectious, he was just a nice young guy."
Police released in a statement a dog squad returned to the scene where the man was found along a property fence line.
They also confirmed the man was not found earlier in the evening despite police checking the vehicle and conducting a sweep of the area and both sides of the road.