Bruce Highway reopens after multi-vehicle crash involving US tank

Both lanes of the Bruce Highway are now open, as investigators piece together the chain of events that led to a fiery multi-vehicle crash involving a US military tank in central Queensland.

The seven-vehicle crash happened near Bajool, south of Rockhampton, yesterday morning.

It involved multiple caravans, a B-double truck and a semi-trailer carrying a US army tank en route to a military exercise.

Three of the vehicles were on fire when police arrived.

Six people were taken to hospital.

Two remain in stable conditions and others have been discharged.

Capricornia District Police Inspector Ben Carroll said earlier this morning there was still one vehicle being removed from the scene.

"The heat of that fire would've melted a lot of the [bitumen] so we'll have to do a lot of work to clean it up," he said.

'Absolute mess'

Inspector Carroll said police were still piecing together the cause of the crash but initial investigations suggest a passenger vehicle failed to stop for an escort vehicle accompanying the semi-trailer carrying the tank, causing a domino effect.

The tank was being transported from Gladstone port to the Shoalwater Bay training area for Exercise Talisman Sabre, a biennial training event involving Australian and US troops.

"That's our initial understanding … our crash investigators are still piecing it together," Inspector Carroll said.

"[That] was the most pleasing thing, because it was an absolute mess."

Truck driver Charitha Schivanka said he felt incredibly lucky to walk away from the crash.

"It all happened in a couple of seconds," he said.

"The first thing I did was get out of the truck … and there's a huge fire and one of the cabins is burning — it was really hard to see.

"It was massive, flames and tyres blasting.