Five deaths in five months: Urgent calls for Bruce Hwy upgrades

Queensland’s worst road is again in the firing line, with calls for urgent safety upgrades and government action after a schoolgirl became the latest victim.

BMA CQ Rescue was tasked to Proserpine after a horror crash on the Bruce Highway at Myrtlevale. Picture: BMA CQ Rescue

A road safety advocate has called for immediate upgrades to the Bruce Highway between Proserpine and Bowen after the tragic deaths of five women in separate head-on collisions on the notorious stretch of road since June.

Leading advocate for highway safety Adjunct Professor Colin Dwyer, from James Cook University, said the horror stretch of the highway only had a two-star safety rating and was ranked the second worst strip of the Bruce Highway in the state.

Professor Dwyer, a member of the lobby group Northern Bruce Action Group, said the risk of this month’s death of year 12 Whitsunday student Brianna Day near Myrtlevale, could have been reduced with overtaking and turning lanes.

He said the increasing number of fatalities and injuries on the section of the road between Proserpine and Bowen signalled a public health emergency.

Road safety advocate and adjunct professor at JCU Colin Dwyer. Picture: The Townsville Bulletin

“That section of the Bruce Highway between Proserpine and Bowen is one of the worst-performing parts of the highway north of Rockhampton,” Professor Dwyer said.

“It only has four overtaking lanes per 100km, which is far below the safer sections of the highway where overtaking opportunities are more frequent, reducing the risk of head-on collisions.

“The worst stretch is near Marlborough from Etna to Sarina, where there are only two overtaking lanes per 100km which increases to four every 100km when you get to the Proserpine section.

“These two road deaths were both head-on collisions, and if we had a dual lane segregated road similar to that in northern New South Wales there would have been less chance of these deaths taking place.

“That’s no comfort to the families, but we need to learn from these tragedies and we need politicians with the guts to spend the money required to reduce the fatality and serious injuries that are occurring.

“It is a public health emergency.”

Professor Dwyer said the JCU community was also in mourning after the death of fifth-year student Wangige Kiumbura on the horror strip of the Bruce Highway in September.

JCU fifth year medical student Wangige Kiumbura died on the fatal stretch of road at Myrtlevale in September. Picture: JCU

The university paid tribute to the young medical student, who was buried in Townsville on October 2 after dying on September 15 on the road near Myrtlevale.

“Wangige was an exceptionally talented young singer, student and most of all friend to all those who knew her, particularly those in Townsville and Mackay,” the university said.

“As someone who committed herself to numerous extra-curricular pursuits over the years, perhaps Wangige’s greatest ability was to make everyone feel uniquely special when interacting with her; as if you were the only person in the room.

“It is clear she was a vibrant and much-loved peer in the JCU medicine cohort, and she will be profoundly missed.”

The section of the Bruce Highway between Proserpine and Bowen is the ranked the second worst section of the highway in the state. Picture: Contributed

The Whitsunday community was in a state of shock over the most recent road tragedy which occurred when the 17-year-old schoolgirl collided with a semi-trailer while allegedly performing a U-turn near the Gunno Go Holiday Park on October 11 in Myrtlevale.

That crash was two months after a 22-year-old Mackay woman died when her BMW crashed in another head-on collision on the Bruce Highway, also at Myrtlevale, on August 15.

Three women died in June when the coach they were travelling in collided with a caravan on the Bruce Highway 116km north of Myrtlevale at Gumlu in June.

Whitsunday Regional Council mayor Ry Collins said the deaths had taken a toll on the community with residents expressing frustration at the state government’s lack of action to make the Bruce Highway safer, despite years of complaints about the substandard road.

Whitsunday mayor Ry Collins said the deaths have taken a toll on the local community. Picture: Contributed

He called for the end of “political games” between state and federal governments and for the dangerous stretch of road to be prioritised immediately as a “matter of life and death”.

“There was $150 million allocated in federal funding to the Bruce Highway in this year’s federal budget, but we’re still being treated as second-class citizens when it comes to road infrastructure, and it’s costing people their lives,” he said.

“The Bruce Highway in this region has been neglected for too long, and these tragedies are the result.

“The government has known about these dangerous sections for years, but there has been a constant delay in addressing the problem.

“Along with the lives lost, the road has had to be closed which has had serious economic effects as well,” he said.

A study by the Northern Bruce Action Group revealed that the area between Proserpine and Bowen had the shockingly high crash rate of 7.1 fatalities or serious injuries per 100 million vehicle kilometres, compared to just 1.4 in safer, dual-lane sections near Brisbane.

The action group’s data along with official state and federal transport data averaged over five years and collected from 11 different sections of the Bruce Highway, showed fatality and serious injury crash rates were “alarmingly high” on the stretch of road north of Proserpine.

The area near Proserpine, scored 7.1 on the group’s annual average fatality and serious injury crash rate (per 100 million vehicle kilometre) while dual-lane separated sections of the highway on Brisbane’s outskirts, showed an annual average of less than 1.4 serious crashes.

Originally published as Five deaths in five months: Urgent calls for Bruce Hwy upgrades