Horror run on Bruce Hwy near Bauple, Gunalda reignite 4-lane fight

A dad is killed when his car and a truck collide, a bystander is forced to pull a screaming toddler from a wrecked vehicle, a 25-year-old dies in another wreck, then a 70 year old in another. Five accidents within the same 20km stretch. And the year has barely begun.

Turning the calendar over to 2023 was supposed to signal the end of a horror year on regional roads.

Instead, it was little more than an hour into January when emergency crews were once more at the scene of a horror fatal crash on the Bruce Hwy just south of Maryborough.

The crash claimed the life of 40-year-old father Matt Ward, who died after his car collided with a truck near Bauple.

It was the start of a two-month bloody nightmare along the stretch of highway between Gunalda, 28km north of Gympie, and Bauple, 36km south of Maryborough.

On January 19, at Curra, just north of Gympie, emergency services rushed to two crashes within as many hours.

A bystander was forced to pull a screaming toddler from one of the wrecked vehicles.

The child’s mother was flown to the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital after fireys freed her.

Two days later 25-year-old Bargara man Miguel Vitale D’Amico was struck and killed by a truck.

On February 16, a man was taken to hospital following another two-car crash near Bauple, and one week later two days of horror unfolded near Gunalda.

In the first crash, on the night of February 23, a 70-year-old man was killed in yet another collision between a car and a truck.

About 5.30pm the following day, a man was flown to the Princess Alexandra in critical condition following a three vehicle crash which also involved a truck.

A horror three car crash at Gunalda on the afternoon of Friday February 24 happened less than 24 hours after a 70-year-old man was killed in the same area.

Five of these happened within a 20km stretch of the Bruce Highway from Gunalda to Bauple.

The horror run has renewed questions about transforming the notorious two-lane highway into four lanes.

The idea has bubbled along for decades, rearing its head every time emergency crews are forced to rush to a crash.

It will not go away anytime soon, either.

Traffic levels are only expected to increase in the coming years: the Regional Australia Institute singling out the Fraser Coast for having the fourth highest internal migration rate in Queensland in 2022.

New figures released by the RAI in March 2023, show it to be among the top five most popular destinations for people relocating from metropolitan and other regional areas.

Bundaberg was the most popular destination among people moving between regional areas.

On Tuesday, February 28, Transport Minister Mark Bailey did not give any timeline for when, or even if, the long-desired dual carriageway upgrade would become reality for the Bruce Highway between Gympie and Maryborough.

There has been five serious crashes, including two three fatalities, along a 20km stretch of the Bruce Hwy between Gunalda and Bauple since the start of 2023.

Speaking in Bundaberg about safety upgrades to the Isis Hwy, Mr Bailey said the state’s major arterial road was overseen by the Bruce Hwy Trust Advisory Council.

This group explored these matters “in detail”, he said.

“What we know is that the Bruce Hwy is 1600km of road.

“By any measure anywhere in the world that is one of the longest highways you would come across.

“So the volumes change considerably on different sections of the highway.”

The Trust is made up of several of Queensland’s peak bodies including the Local Government Association of Queensland, the RACQ, and Queensland’s Trucking and Farming Associations.

Mr Bailey defended the state government’s own investment in the road’s safety, in the past and moving forward.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said decisions around what parts of the Bruce Hwy were upgraded were guided by a Trust comprised of several peak bodies, and defended the state government’s record of investment on the road. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“We’re committed to the Tiaro Bypass … I’ve said that new section of the Bruce … I’ve stipulated it should be absolutely separated.

“If you’re going to build a new piece of the Bruce Hwy entirely then there should be no risk of a head-on.”

Mr Bailey declined to commit to anything, in contrast to the LNP and its 2020 election promise to duplicate the entire Bruce Highway at a cost of $33bn.

However the roads themselves were only part of the story.

“You still need to drive very carefully on the Bruce Hwy, let‘s be very clear,” Mr Bailey said.

“It’s like any road, if you do dangerous things then your risk massively increases.”

He said the majority of fatal crashes “are people often making dangerous choices, often multiple dangerous choices at the one time – no seat belt, speeding, driving drunk, and there’s a fatality right there.

“I just say to drivers make sure you do those safe things every time you drive, have patience, don’t take risks out there it’s just not worth it.”

The public has been less forgiving though.

The RACQ said the Bruce Hwy was voted the state’s most unroadworthy road in its latest poll.

RACQ traffic and safety engineering manager Gregory Miszkowycz said drivers pointed out “a range of issues including narrow sections of road, potholes, a lack safe overtaking opportunities and being prone to flooding”.

“We know there’s a lot of work being done on the Bruce Highway and RACQ continues to call for these upgrades to be delivered faster and for ongoing investment in road infrastructure,” Mr Miszkowycz said.

“Even with significant investment in the Bruce Highway since 2013, there is still more to do, which includes continuing safety upgrades north of the Gympie Bypass in future years.

“299 people lost their lives on Queensland roads last year and the overwhelming majority of those deaths can be attributed to the fatal five – that’s speeding, driving fatigued, drink and drug driving, distracted driving and not wearing a seatbelt.

“Given that poor roads are unforgiving to driver mistakes and speeding, we need motorists to obey traffic laws and take road safety seriously every time they get behind the wheel.

“If it’s not for themselves, for their loved ones and other road users.”