Dangerous drivers on Tin Can Bay, Rainbow Beach roads

A Rainbow Beach businessman pushing the State Govt to upgrade two of the region’s busiest and most hazardous roads, says dangerous driver behaviour is common on both stretches.

A Rainbow Beach businessman pushing for safety upgrades on the Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach Rds says he has been getting “absolutely disgusting” reports of drivers taking serious risks on both roads.

Tony Stewart said holiday-makers in the area frequently reported dangerous behaviour while travelling on Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach Rds, and he called on the State Government to upgrade them in the name of safety.

“There’s so many irresponsible drivers passing them on double lines,” Mr Stewart said.

“These caravaners, they want to pull off but they have nowhere to allow for overtaking.”

The danger of the road was far from a local secret, he said.

Mr Stewart said one Queensland Transport employee he met in Gympie told him “he’d rather take his kids to the beach in Mooloolaba than drive to Rainbow Beach” because of the state of the roads to get there, which he said was “pretty disgusting”.

The roads regularly rank among the most dangerous within the region. Photos: Scott Kovacevic

The sections at Ross Creek and outside the Goomboorian petrol station were especially dangerous, and turning lanes were desperately needed.

“You’re a sitting duck in the middle of the road there,” he said.

These were far from the only safety problems on the State-controlled roads.

“We’re getting the wheel ruts (on Rainbow Beach Road) filling with water (when it rains),” Mr Stewart said.

“The Government has said to me that they have improved and widened the road in certain areas for overtaking.

“Well, where? I don’t know.”

He said even things as simple as extra signage would make a world of difference to safety.

Mr Stewart has collected more than 3300 signatures on his petitions so far.

“There’s a stopping place at Silky Oaks but these caravaners … they don’t know because they’re coming from Victoria and New South Wales.

“They don’t know the road.

“The locals drive to the conditions … we’re suspecting that something could go wrong at any time.

“But where you have people travelling long distances and they don’t know the road, this is where accidents can easily happen.”

And traffic levels had not declined, either; in 2017 he said he calculated there were 64 caravans travelling them each day, and the coast’s tourism had only increased in the years since.

He estimated he had collected about 3300 signatures on his petition to the State Government so dat “without another 25 clipboards that are out going around”.

The petitions close at the end of September.

Sign the petition here