Boy, 12, dies in Cairns car crash

Sun 21 Jun 2026 at 11:32am

Sun 21 Jun 2026 at 11:32am

A 12-year-old boy has died after an allegedly stolen vehicle rolled off an embankment and flipped on its roof in Far North Queensland.

Emergency services were called to Stratford Parade in the Cairns suburb of Stratford at 4am on Sunday after reports of a single-vehicle crash.

Police arrived to find the boy deceased outside the vehicle and three other people – two men, aged 20 and 22, and a 19-year-old woman – with serious injuries.

All three were rushed to Cairns Base Hospital and remain in a stable condition.

Queensland Police Acting Chief Superintendent Mick Searle said the Toyota wagon was reported stolen from Pomona Avenue, Mooroobool, one hour earlier.

He stressed that police were not pursuing the vehicle at the time of the crash.

“We had no involvement with this car prior to its crash,” he said, as he extended his condolences to the boy's family.

"This is a sad day for the wider Cairns community."

The road was closed in both directions as investigators worked at the scene to determine why the car came off the road.

Police are appealing for information, including any video recorded on dashcams or CCTV on Kamerunga Road and Aeroglen Drive in Cairns between 3am and 4am.

Acting Chief Superintendent Searle said the wider community does a “very good job” of driving safely.

However, he said driving tends to become “more erratic” in stolen cars, and he sent a message to “people who want to continue to break into people’s houses and steal their vehicles".

“This is a very real outcome of both that offending and the type of driving behaviour that they then choose to complete after that,” he said.

“I’m not going to sit here and preach because there’s a family who’s going through a lot of grief at the moment,” he added.

“However, it’s a timely reminder of the impacts of what can happen when people are behind the wheel of a car and when they’re not doing it safely.”

Police say they will examine whether any charges will be laid.

The occupants of the car were known to each other, police said.