Sandra McGrath shares daughter Vicky’s tragic story

A grieving mum has opened up about the crash that claimed her daughter’s life and what could have saved her, while throwing her support behind a road safety campaign.

Sandra McGrath with the memorial for her daughter Vicky, set up in her Bidwill home.

In a quiet corner of Sandra McGrath’s Bidwill home, there is a space devoted entirely to the memory of her beloved daughter.

Vicky McGrath, 39, was killed on October 11, 2020, in a crash along the ungraded section of Beelbi Creek Rd.

Her two children, who Sandra now cares for, survived the crash.

They live each day with the memory of the crash that claimed their mother’s life.

Every visit to the road where her daughter died brings pain.

But it also brings questions.

Mostly, Sandra wonders why a road that people frequently use as a shortcut, which has homes dotted along it, and where two people have lost their lives, has not been upgraded.

The memorial placed at the spot where Vicky McGrath died in a car crash earlier this month.

Just a few hundred metres from where Vicky died is a cross that is another sobering reminder of just how dangerous the road can be.

Michael Pickering was seriously injured in the crash on Beelbi Creek Rd on November 29, 2015, when the ute he was driving left the road and crashed into a tree.

Wide Bay Burnett campaign 2023

He died after spending two months in hospital.

Sandra believes if the road was sealed, her daughter would still be alive.

“Vicky would have been here today, I have no doubts,” she said.

“She stood no chance, she really didn’t stand a chance on that road.”

Vicky McGrath with her mum Sandra McGrath and her children Taya and Oliver.

That is why she has joined a campaign to fix the region’s rural roads and save other families from the heartbreak she and Vicky’s children experience every day.

“She was a one in a million daughter,” Sandra said.

“I’m only thankful we didn’t lose all three.

“Our lives have changed forever.”

In the next fortnight News Corp’s Wide Bay Burnett mastheads will be laying bare the shocking cost of our region’s shoddy roads because it is time for more to be done.

Sandra hopes that by sharing Vicky’s story, her daughter’s life won’t be in vain.

“There is no price you can put on someone’s life,” she said.

Upgrading rural roads would ensure more lives aren’t lost so tragically, Sandra said.

“People live on that stretch of road,” she said.

“Everyone that uses that road would benefit.”