Truck explosion triggers pile-up on Queensland highway

A truck filled with drums of hydraulic oil and mining equipment has burst into flames on a Sunshine Coast highway this afternoon.

The truck was travelling along the Bruce Highway when it suddenly burst into flame, the driver leaping for his life moments before the fire took off, incinerating his rig.

“We looked outside and the truck had pulled up on the side of the road and smoke started coming out of the bonnet,” local worker VJ Gould told 9NEWS.

Witnesses were startled to hear the sound of an explosion.

“It was like one bang and we walked outside to see what it was and then another bang and our whole house shook,” one woman said.

As thick black smoke billowed into the air, two businesses were immediately evacuated.

“We just evacuated all the staff and police set up a 500 metre exclusion,” Ms Gould said.

It is not known what triggered the blaze.

Less than an hour later on the same stretch of road at Glenview, the sight of smoke led a passing truck and two cars to slow down, causing them to collide.

All three vehicles were thrown off the road, with one of the drivers, a 27-year-old heavily pregnant woman, becoming trapped inside the wreckage of her car.

Fire crews worked to cut her free, before she and a 70-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were taken to hospital to be treated for their injuries.