Gympie region’s most deadly roads revealed

The dire numbers speak for themselves, with one local road accounting for 10% of 136 fatal crashes in the past 18 years

Tin Can Bay Rd has been revealed as the region’s deadliest road outside of the Bruce Highway, with 13 fatal crashes (including this one at Goomboorian) happening on the stretch between 2001 and 2018.

TIN Can Bay Rd has claimed the grim title of the region’s most dangerous road outside the Bruce Highway, State Government data has revealed.

From 2001-2018 the key connection road between Gympie and the coast was the site of 14 deaths in 13 fatal car crashes.

The State-controlled road accounted for almost 10 per cent of the 136 fatal crashes in the region over those 18 years, which claimed 149 lives.

The Bruce Highway was the deadliest, with 43 fatal accidents near Gympie alone.

The Bruce Highway south of Gympie was the most dangerous stretch of road; it has since been upgraded and bypassed, saving many lives. PicGraemeParkes

Twenty-five of those were on the southern stretch of the Highway.

These included 16 at Kybong (on the section now bypassed by Section C), four at Glanmire, also recently upgraded as a temporary measure to stop the carnage, and four more at Coles Creek.

Other roads where multiple fatalities occurred included the Wide Bay Highway and the Burnett Highway (eight each), Eel Creek Rd, Gympie-Brooloo Rd and Rainbow Beach Rd (four each), and Gympie-Woolooga Rd, Mica Rd, Moy Pocket Rd and Nash Rd (two each).

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The suburbs where most fatal crashes occurred were Kybong (16 crashes), Curra, Gunalda and Gympie (seven each), and Boouybjan Goomboorian and the Toolara Forest (six each).

Single vehicle crashes accounted for 64 of the region’s fatal accidents; 59 more were multi-vehicle crashes, including 34 head-ons.

Almost 150 people lost their lives on Gympie region roads from 2001-2018. Photos Greg Lamprecht

The deadliest crash was a head-on collision on the Bruce Highway at Coles Creek in September 2008, which claimed three lives.

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Only nine of the fatalities happened on the region’s unsealed roads, and less than a third were on council-controlled roads.

One of the 136 fatal crashes was the result of a car hitting an animal on Eel Creek Rd in 2003.

The deadliest years in this period were 2003, 2008 and 2018, when 13 fatal crashers were recorded in each.

In contrast, only two fatal crashes occurred on Gympie roads in 2011.

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