Three Rainbow Serpent festival attendees have been injured on the opening day of the four-day event, after a small truck rolled onto their tent at the festival's Lexton site in western Victoria.
As reported earlier this evening by The Age's Melissa Cunningham, of the three people involved in the incident, a man in his 30s was airlifted to The Alfied Hospital in Melbourne with more serious injuries.
While two women, one aged in her 20s and the other her 30s, have both been taken to Ballarat Base Hospital in a stable condition. Victorian Police are investigating the details surrounding the incident.
Devastated Rainbow Serpent organisers have immediately expressed their sorrow. "Our thoughts are with the injured and their families," Festival spokesperson, Tim Harvey said.
"We know the entire Rainbow community will be thinking of them all weekend, but it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage," Mr. Harvey said.
Rainbow Serpent has a strong safety record over 22 years of operations, which is backed by emergency medicine specialist at Canberra's Calvary Hospital and senior lecturer at ANU, Dr. David Caldicott, who has attended many Rainbow Serpent Festivals to observe medical practices and has previously stated the event sets the standard internationally for remote emergency medicine.
"Rainbow is very committed to reducing harm," he said in a recent video the festival produced.
Matthew Wood, Rainbow Serpent's event emergency response coordinator, said management's response to today's incident was immediate. "We have all emergency services on-site, including medical and ambulance and run training exercises to prepare for responding to any serious incident.
"Procedures were followed as planned and our thoughts are with the victims," Mr. Wood said.
Today's tragedy is the latest in a string of recent, drug-related deaths at Australian festivals, which Rainbow Serpent addressed earlier this month via a video narrated by Mr Harvey.
In the video, the festival emphasises its current policy of supportive, judgement-free harm-reduction. "To our patrons who are considering using drugs at Rainbow, we ask you to reconsider. The risk is very real," Mr Harvey narrates.
"If you or a friend do take a drug and feel ill or are concerned, please do not hesitate to seek medical help immediately. Your well-being is our number one priority; you will not get in trouble."
