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Poorly secured SUV takes a dive off the back of a ferry

Somewhere on the seafloor off Queensland, Australia, is an SUV carrying passports, credit cards, backpacking gear, and other belongings of angry but fortunate tourists.

Fortunately, because the tourists were not inside the SUV when the unsecured vehicle rolled off the back of a ferry and sank, while onlookers watched in disbelief.

The accompanying video footage was captured by Chloe Swift, a passenger aboard the Manta Ray Fraser Island ferry, on New Year’s Eve.

The footage and Swift’s comments were posted to the Moreton Bay Crime Watch Facebook page, under the headline, “Rust in Peace Landrover.” (The video had garnered nearly 2 million views by early Monday afternoon.)

Swift said the ferry passengers were mostly backpackers en route from Inskip Point to Fraser Island.

Her description reads, in part: “Really sad and scary start to our Fraser Island trip. All 4×4’s were on the ferry and we were making our way to the island. One of the 4×4’s at the back of the ferry completely rolled off and sank. Luckily nobody inside the car! But quite a few phones, debit cards, passports and valuables all gone.”

“There were a lot of girls obviously crying,” Swift added to Australia’s ABC News. “Their phones and everything are in the car that sunk. The guys took it quite well, but a lot of the girls were crying and a lot of people haven’t rung their families because they are so upset right now.”

Katrina Lawrence, another ferry passenger, told ABC that a man grabbed a front bar on the SUV as it began to roll, but could could not save the vehicle.

“It skidded along for a bit, he let it go, and it proceeded to roll over the back and int the water where it stayed up for about 30 seconds, before it sunk down,” she said.

Swift said the backpackers whose gear was inside the SUV hoped to borrow new equipment so they could continue their adventure.

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