The mother of Broncos star Payne Haas is in hospital after being involved in a crash that killed a family in another car on the Gold Coast hinterland yesterday afternoon.
Officers were doing patrols in Bonogin when they allegedly spotted a black Mercedes being driven erratically by a 46-year-old woman about 5pm.
"Police activated their vehicle's warning lights and attempted to intercept the vehicle, however the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle evaded police," Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon said.
"Police made a decision there because of the conduct of the driver, not to engage in a pursuit."
Shortly after, police said they were flagged down by a passing motorist who alerted them to a collision involving the same car about a kilometre from the attempted intercept.
The Mercedes had allegedly collided with another car, which then hit and knocked over a power pole.
A man and woman, aged 79 and 70, and a 35-year-old woman, all from the same local family, were inside the second silver car and became trapped.
Police managed to free two of them and began CPR as paramedics headed to the scene.
Despite the efforts of the officers, paramedics and passing motorists, the trio died at the scene.
"It's a tragic, tragic incident that's occurred," Chief Superintendent Hanlon said.
"It was a very, very confronting scene.
"To lose three people from the same family, you can't recover from that."
Mercedes catches fire
Amid the crash, the power pole fell on the Mercedes and the car caught alight.
Its driver, who the ABC understands to be Haas' mother Uiatu "Joan" Taufua, was also trapped but freed by police.
She was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition with head and pelvic injuries.
Today, police said she was stable.
Chief Superintendent Hanlon said the woman had a number of fractures and "other injuries" and officers were yet to communicate with her.
"We will take as long as it takes to get enough information to determine exactly what was the cause of the crash," he said.
"Should an offence [be] detected, and we have enough information and enough evidence, we will prosecute the people involved, but it's too early to tell it.
"Speed could have been a contributing factor, but that will form part of our investigation."
In 2019, Ms Taufua was sentenced to two years in prison, but immediately paroled, after assaulting a delivery driver in a road rage attack.
There is no suggestion that road rage was involved in this incident.
Neighbours witness aftermath
A neighbour, who does not want to be named, came out to the road after hearing the crash.
"The noise that they made was unreal," he said.
"We knew straight away what had happened. Obviously the power had gone off."
He said he saw the officers pull two people from the second car, working on one for 40 minutes.
"We were going to go up to the black car [the Mercedes] and try to get that woman out, because everybody could see it was on fire," he said.
"But we noticed the power lines were just missing the roof of the car and we didn't know if they were live.
"The police got a fire extinguisher and tried to put it out.
"They ended up pulling her out and dragging her to the fence down there. And then a couple of minutes later the lines fell on them.
"About 20 minutes later another power line fell."
It is not the first time the neighbour had been a first responder to a fatality on the road.
"We've been here over 20 years, there had been a couple of other deaths and crashes, and it's really been bad," he said.
"It's a nightmare getting in and out of the drive."
The Forensic Crash Unit will investigate the circumstances of the collision and appeal for witnesses, especially those with dashcam or CCTV vision of the crash, or the moments leading up to it.
