Police officers are caught riding on the back of a truck as it drives down a highway at 60km/h - but it's completely LEGAL
- Two Queensland cops were filmed travelling a highway on the back of a truck
- The truck-riding cops, travelling at 60km/h, were filmed by a passing car
- Police were responding to disaster situation due to the floods in Queensland
Two Queensland police officers have been filmed riding on the back of a council truck driving down a highway at 60km/h.
The footage shows two cops in the back of large truck on a Townsville highway heading towards Ross River Dam.
The video was shot from a car as it passed the large truck, and the car’s occupants can be heard questioning the legality of the unorthodox ride.
‘Don’t know how the f*** this is legal,’ said one of the passengers.
Another simply comments: ‘A***holes.’
Two Queensland police officers (pictured) can be seen riding on the back of a truck on the Townsville highway on February 5
The police officers involved look unperturbed by their means of transport, and one of the officers simply stares at the camera as the car drives past.
Contrary to what the witnesses may have thought, the two officers – who were responding to the devastating floods in northern Queensland – were well within their rights.
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A spokesman for Queensland Police said the truck had been commandeered under two different disaster acts declared in response to the situation in Townsville.
‘Under these circumstances police officers may take control of any resource necessary for the purpose of protecting the safety and lives of the public,’ the spokesperson said.
The footage of the truck riding police (pictured) was filmed by the occupants of a passing car and uploaded to YouTube
The truck was one of a number of council vehicles which officers used to ‘ferry members of the public to safety’ during the monsoon’s heavy rainfall.
Far from a joy-ride, the police were operating under the ‘reasonable expectation that in time of crisis… police will go to great lengths to protect the community.'
Even without the floods, the two men in the car would still be wrong about how 'legal' the highway truck ride was.
The spokesman said: 'Outside of a disaster declaration, the Transport Operations Act 1995 states police officers are exempt from the traffic laws while they are performing their duties.'
Townsville has been battered by monsoon rains over the last week, setting record flood levels and destroying homes.
The northern Queensland city has received a year’s worth of rainfall in nine days, and hundreds of its residents have had to be evacuated.
The floods have now subsided and a mammoth clean up of the damage caused has begun.
