VIDEO: Roles were reversed when motorists rushed to help an ambulance officer in an overturned ambulance on the Tableland yesterday.

The woman, from the Millaa Millaa Ambulance Station, was flown to Cairns Base Hospital after passers-by called 000 and firefighters worked to free her from the overturned vehicle.

She was in a stable condition in hospital last night.

The ambulance was going to a Code 1 call-out when it crashed outside the Tarzali Lakes Aquaculture Centre on the Millaa Millaa-Malanda Rd about 12km north of Millaa Millaa, a Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said.

Aquaculture centre owner Peter Whiddett heard the crash happen about 11.30am.

"We saw the ambulance go past and then heard a big bang," he said.

The ambulance is thought to have hit a road sign, run into a culvert and then flipped on to its driver's side.

Millaa Millaa Fire Station captain Noel Ingles was one of several auxiliary firefighters who took the ambulance's windscreen out so fellow paramedics could get to the woman, who was taken out of the back of the van on a spine board.

A rescue helicopter landed on the road, which was blocked for 90 minutes.

A Queensland Ambulance spokesman said there had been no patients on board and another ambulance had gone to the original Code 1 call-out.

In a weekend of crashes, a 51-year-old man was flown to hospital with critical injuries after his car skidded on its roof more than 60m along the Bruce Highway north of Cardwell on Saturday afternoon.

The man, from nearby Kennedy, was in a stable condition in intensive care yesterday.

Police charged his 25-year-old friend with drink-driving and unlicensed driving. The car allegedly hit a four-wheel-drive in front of it, blew two tyres and flipped, skidding down the highway past the vehicle it hit.

The family inside the four-wheel-drive was not hurt.

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