Wide Bay-Burnett road toll more than double 2022 as another life lost
The region’s top cop has released more details about the beach crash that killed a 17-year-old boy at the weekend, and implored the public to help stop the devastating carnage on regional roads.
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Senior police have implored the Bundaberg community to come together to put a stop to the devastating road toll after another young life ended tragically and prematurely at the weekend.
Acting superintendent and district officer for Wide Bay-Burnett Inspector Paul Algie addressed the media on Monday after a 17-year-old Meadowvale boy died at the scene of a motorcycle crash at Coonarr Beach on Saturday, December 8.
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Inspector Algie said the Meadowvale boy and a 20-year-old Bundaberg North man who was also involved in the crash were known to each other and were on a camping trip at Coonarr Beach when their motorcycles collided around 8pm on Saturday.
The Bundaberg North man sustained serious leg and arm injuries and was taken to Bundaberg Hospital in a stable condition.
Due to an ongoing police investigation and pending toxicology reports Inspector Algie was unable to confirm if the two motorcyclists were engaged in “hooning” behaviour, nor whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.
The weekend’s fatality was the 43rd death on Wide Bay-Burnett roads in 2023, more than double the road toll in the region at the same time in 2022, according to police crime data.
Insp Algie said increased police operations in Kinkuna and Coonarr Beaches in 2023, popular destinations for beach parties and hooning behaviour with at times catastrophic consequences, had resulted in 18 people being charged with 33 serious criminal offences.
Among those charges, 12 people were charged with hooning offences that incurred harsher penalties due to the offenders posting videos of the dangerous driving on social media courtesy of the new “post and boast” youth crime laws legislated in March 2023.
Insp Algie said specialist police officers and civilian staff were monitoring popular social media platforms around the clock to find content promoting hooning behaviour and link it to the offending drivers.
While he assured the public police would continue to patrol Wide Bay-Burnett beaches and roads to clamp down on risky driving and unsafe vehicles, he called for drivers, riders and the community as a whole to come together to put a stop to the “concerning” escalating road toll.
“It’s very sad for me to have to report another fatal crash in the Wide Bay-Burnett district, this time at Coonarr Beach, and very tragically we saw a young person lose their life,” Insp Algie said.
“That’s another young person who won’t be around the table at Christmas time.
“It’s a very, very sad state of affairs, but what I would say is this, police can only do so much; this is a whole of community issue.
“So I ask everybody around the dinner table tonight, when you’re talking to your friends and loved ones, if you’re in a car with somebody, or on a motorcycle with somebody that’s behaving or driving in a reckless and dangerous manner, call it out.
“If you are misbehaving in a motor vehicle or in a car, it is my intent that you will be turned from a motorist into a pedestrian; you will not continue to drive that car or ride that motorcycle.
“But we need everybody’s help to call it out.”
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When questioned on the status of behavioural change programs to address the youth culture of beach hooning, Insp Algie said he would meet with Transport and Main Roads to improve community messaging around the risks associated with hooning.
“Our district crime prevention officer does a lot of work with schools, and also works with community groups on some of that behavioral change,” he said.
“There is work being done in the behavioral change space, but unfortunately we need everybody to lift their game.”
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