Horrific road toll prompts counselling session for South Burnett locals

A regional community will require counselling and support, after a horrific week on their roads as locals come to terms with nine deaths on their roads in just six weeks, including six killed in the space of one week.

A STUNNED mayor has said the recent spate road deaths has impacted his community more than any natural disaster in his memory.

The South Burnett Regional Council Mayor Keith Campbell said locals will need counselling and support to overcome a shocking six weeks on local roads, in which nine people died in just six weeks.

It follows the death of Hervey Bay mother Charmaine Harris McLeod, 35, and her four children on Monday near Kingaroy, and then of local Joseph Guaresi two days later.

Mr Guaresi was thrown from his utility after colliding with a truck at an intersection, while his wife followed in another vehicle.

Charmaine McLeod and her four children were killed in a car crash on Monday night. The crash outside just outside of the town of Kumbia, which was rocked by another fatal crash later that week. Photo: supplied.

Mr Campbell said the frequency of road fatalities had overwhelmed locals.

“There are people in the community who are hurting quite badly over these deaths,” Mr Campbell said. “We’ve had disasters here by way of bushfires, floods, hail storms, but never to the point of the loss of life at the level we have had (with car crashes).”

South Burnett Regional Council will hold an evening on Monday called Shoulder to Shoulder, with Chaplains, counsellors, first responders and locals to support those struggling with the event.

The recent spate of deaths has opened up serious calls for locals to slow down and remember basic road rules.

Charmaine McLeod and her four children were incinerated in a car crash near Kumbia A woman and four children killed in a "catastrophic" crash near Kumbia last night

In a local paper yesterday, Sgt. Dave Tierney from the Queensland Police Kingaroy said that the number of traffic offences on local roads was “disappointing”.

“Frankly, I’m feeling a little jaded and disillusioned that a number of people in the community appear not to care, or believe (driving carefully) doesn’t apply to them,” he said.

Sgt. Tierney said the responsibility for local roads rested with drivers, rather than with emergency services and government.

Local farmer Graham Reed, whose property is next to the site of one fatal crash, agreed with the Mayor’s assessment.

“The mood is very sombre,” Mr Reed said. “People are stopping, dead stopped, at stop signs now.”