Terrifying footage shows fiery end to truck rampage
Incredible footage shows the moment a driver’s 114km joy ride through NSW’s Hunter Valley came to an end.
The driver allegedly ploughed a truck into a hotel before taking solace in another truckie’s semi-trailer.
The truck rampage came to a halt in Singleton in October last year and culminated in Rodney Johnson’s arrest at gunpoint.
The footage shows the truck speeding down a busy George Street before its tyres are pierced by road spikes.
The hurtling vehicle smashes into the side of the historic Royal Hotel. The truck’s undercarriage is already alit before a fireball engulfs the rig and takes out power poles.
The reaction from witnesses in the firing line was one of horror. A nearby truck driver can be seen gasping with his hands on his head before recoiling in fear the rig, or a toppling power pole, would take him out too.
As power lines sway and smoke billows, Rodney Johnson, 29, the alleged driver, scrambles from the cabin and leaps to the road. He then jogs to safety before surveying the destruction.
After seeing he’s unharmed, the second truckie invites him into his cabin.
As Johnson climbs inside, police arrive on the scene. Unknown to the truckie, police have been chasing Johnson for kilometres.
Guns drawn, the officers can be seen surveying the scene in search for the driver.
On the other side of George Street, 90 seconds after the crash, witnesses finally tell police the fleeing motorist was inside the nearby truck.
They surge forward, guns drawn, prompting the unwitting truckie to jump out.
“Get out of the truck! Get out of the truck,” demands one officer, with his gun pointing at Johnson.
He moves across the seats before police try and force him out. Johnson allegedly resists before another officer joins in. Several punches are thrown, before Johnson is ejected from the rig.
Pictures from witnesses reveal it took as many as seven officers to restrain him.
Nearly a year later, George Street has not fully recovered.
The cost of the damage is millions of dollars while half a dozen cars were totalled and five people sent to hospital. Thankfully no one was killed during the rampage.
After an erratic trip on the New England Highway from a Murrurundi petrol station, police felt they had no choice but to deploy road spikes on Singleton’s outskirts as the truck approached homes.
Johnson’s court case is being heard at Newcastle Court and it’s expected to head to a committal trial later this year.
