Mackay Whitsunday road toll: 10 drivers guilty over fatal crashes
Their dangerous or reckless behaviour on the road has claimed 11 lives – mothers, fathers, brothers – and left families broken and grieving.
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Their dangerous or reckless behaviour on the road has claimed 10 lives – mothers, fathers, brothers – and left families broken and grieving. These are nine drivers who faced court over fatal crashes.
2022 was the worst year for fatal crashes across the Mackay district in nine years with police attributing drugs and alcohol as a major contributor.
The highest reading in that year was 0.35 per cent, which is seven times the legal alcohol limit.
Mackay district Forensic Crash Unit officer in charge Sergeant Michael Hollett said, “This is just unacceptable.”
CONVICTIONS RECORDED
Graham Anthony Hanson
The anguished screams of a 12-year-old boy rang across the scene of a terrible Bruce Highway crash as he realised his twin brother had been killed in the “extremely violent” head-on collision.
Witnesses heard Austin Edwards-Bland saying “Stirling is dead, he has a broken neck, my life is over” as he was trapped in the back seat of a crumpled Toyota Rav 4 next to his lifeless sibling.
The serial drink-driver of the Nissan Patrol that caused the crash on May 1, 2022 had knocked back up to 14 heavy beers over three hours while behind the wheel on a road trip between Townsville and Midge Point.
Now Graham Anthony Hanson will spend at least 8.8 years of an 11 year jail term after pleading guilty to manslaughter, over his “selfish actions” in deliberately driving while more than four times the legal alcohol limit.
Mackay Supreme Court heard shocking details how Hanson, then 45, had sold a quad bike to someone at Midge Point and was dropping it off when he stopped in Bowen at 3.28pm and bought a carton of heavy strength beer for $62.99, with the intention of drinking them on the drive.
About an hour later his vehicle was seen driving dangerously in roadworks including overtaking over solid white lines, drifting between lanes, tailgating another car and performing dangerous manoeuvres that nearly resulted in a head-on collision with a 4WD towing a trailer.
“Seems it was only a matter of time before someone was killed by your actions,” Justice Graeme Crow said.
FULL STORY HERE
Tristan James Watson
It was the end of his shift and Mackay traffic controller Brendan Moreland smiled at a co-worker as he packed away road signage – within minutes that same workmate would be staring down at his twisted, broken body.
Tristan James Watson had been behind the wheel of a stolen Toyota RAV4 when he slammed into 35-year-old Mr Moreland on the Ron Camm Bridge just after 4am on October 26, 2021.
Mackay District Court in November 2022 heard the force of the impact smashed the 4WD’s windscreen and caused Mr Moreland to be tossed about 50m through the air in front of his three workmates.
Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence said his co workers described seeing him “flung as high as the street lights” before hitting the bitumen.
Watson, then 28 and out on parole, didn’t stop – he kept driving.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death while speeding and leaving the scene of the fatal crash and was jailed for 5.5 years, cumulative to the six year jail term he had already been serving.
He is eligible for parole in September 2024. A conviction was recorded.
FULL STORY HERE
Sefo Pau
A heartbroken widow has delivered a devastating victim impact statement to the dangerous driver who stole the life of her soulmate and father of their three little girls including calling on him to “make something good come out of this tragedy”.
“I can’t begin to imagine the horror he would have felt in his last moments,” Kylie Burrage said as she laid bare her powerful words to Sefo Pau at his sentence over the fatal crash that claimed Mirani father-of-three Scott Burrage.
“Did you have any idea what it feels like to have your child tell you that daddy can’t love them anymore because he’s in heaven and not with them?”
In November 2022 Mackay District Court heard police and nearby drivers removed Mr Burrage from the crumpled wreck of his Toyota Prado and began desperately trying to save his life – tragically he died at the scene.
Pau’s Mitsubishi Lancer, that was fitted with stolen plates, reached speeds of 182km/h five seconds before the catastrophic impact.
It was just after 7.45pm on March 20, 2021 and Mr Burrage, 35, was in his parked vehicle on the gravel driveway to the Mirani waste treatment plant, and at the same time about 150m to the east Pau left Mackay Eungella Rd travelled in a straight line across a grassy embankment to the stationary vehicle.
Pau pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death while speeding and was jailed for eight years, his licence was disqualified absolutely. A conviction was recorded.
FULL STORY HERE
Justine Wayne Alderton
A driver who caused the death of a beloved Townsville father had meth in his system, while police found beer cans, water pipes and marijuana strewn inside his destroyed Holden ute.
The 34 year old had been travelling north on the Bruce Highway near Pindi Pindi when, about 2.35pm on July 16, 2021, his vehicle crashed into a black Ford ute killing driver Walter Newton and seriously injuring his 19-year-old son also named Walter Newman, who was choppered to hospital.
A third vehicle, a Toyota Kluger driven by a 47-year-0ld man, also collided with the two cars but he was not seriously injured.
Alderton pleaded guilty in Mackay District Court in September 2023 to dangerous driving causing death and grievous bodily harm, crying as he told his victim’s family “I’m sorry, Newton family … I just wish that it never happened.”
He was jailed for six years jail with parole eligibility in April 2024 and his licence was disqualified absolutely. A conviction was recorded.
FULL STORY HERE
Brent Jordan Smith
The teenage son of a woman killed in a head-on crash has laid bare the ongoing pain he feels at the loss of his mother.
Tamara Rose Boland was driving on Eton Homebush Rd at Homebush on October 6, 2020, when a speeding motorist in an oncoming ute struck her Nissan sedan.
Mrs Boland died at the scene, her husband Michael learning of her death when he had driven 2.5km from his home about 5.45pm that day in search of her when she was late home.
He learned his wife had died when he reached a police roadblock.
Mackay District Court heard as the driver of the ute, Brent Jordan Smith, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death.
Mr Boland said he lived with a “lingering sense of loss” and described his wife as his “life partner, best friend and one person I could totally rely on and trust”.
“Being told your wife has died at the crash scene is heart-wrenching. Seeing Tamara lying in the mortuary is heartbreaking,” he said in court in March 2022.
The court heard Smith had been drinking the before driving from Lake Vermont mine later returning a 0.062 per cent blood alcohol concentrate, while his airbags registered a 131km/h speed in a 100km/h zone.
He was jailed for 3.5 years, suspended after serving six months, with the remaining sentence to hang over his head for 3.5 years. His licence was disqualified for two years and a conviction was recorded.
FULL STORY HERE
Shontelle Elizabeth Fulton
A Whitsundays woman claims the fiance who had inflicted horrific domestic violence on her during their relationship “dragged” her from the pub and forced her to drive drunk the night the couple’s car flipped, leaving him dead.
Mackay District Court heard Shontelle Elizabeth Fulton and Shannon Dryburgh left the Prince of Wales Hotel in Proserpine drunk, before a dramatic crash flipped their station wagon on Conway Road.
Judge Gregory Lynham said the crash, which occurred about 6pm June 30, 2021, left Dryburgh with “unsurvivable chest injuries” and Fulton crying out to paramedics that “he made me drive”.
Defence barrister Scott McLennan told the court because of Fulton’s guilty plea to dangerous driving while intoxicated causing death, “the defence of compulsion isn’t available” but remained a “powerful mitigating factor”.
He said Dryburgh was domestically abusive towards Fulton throughout their six-year relationship, saying it was his jealous and drunk behaviour at the pub which caused them to leave.
She was jailed for four years wholly suspended for five years and her license was disqualified for 18 months.
Rozlyn Grace Walker
This ice using killer driver tried to dodge blame for a fatal crash that claimed the life of beloved community member Tammy Frewin.
But the 35 year old did not have to spend any time in jail for the terrible incident on February 2, 2022 at Strathfield.
Walker was behind the wheel of a Silver Prado when it veered into the ongoing lane on the Peak Downs Highway, slamming into a white Honda that had nowhere to go.
As a result of the catastrophic near head-on collision at speed, healthcare worker Ms Frewin died at the scene. She had been taking a 77-year-old man to and from a medical appointment.
Walker, 35, initially claimed she had no idea what had happened before fabricating a story that another vehicle had struck her moments earlier forcing her SUV into the wrong lane.
In June 2023 she pleaded not guilty in Mackay Magistrates Court to careless driving causing death and even went to far as to assign blame to a “completely innocent” driver, whose vehicle had been captured at the scene in police body worn footage.
But Magistrate Bronwyn Hartigan found her guilty going so far as to say, “It is horrifying how without remorse she is”.
Walker was jailed for six months with immediate parole because of the nature of the offending and a conviction was recorded. She was disqualified from driving for 12 months.
FULL STORY HERE
Debbie Lee Hudson
A driver responsible for a horror crash that claimed the lives of a father and daughter was caught speeding months after she had been charged over the double highway fatality.
Heartbroken loved ones have revealed their torment after sitting at the hospital bedside of 19-year-old Hannah Atherton who succumbed to injuries from the terrible incident barely a week after her father Alan Atherton died on the roadside.
Alan had been celebrating his 60th birthday milestone and was taking his daughter Hannah for a ride on his Harley Davidson when this tragedy occurred 2km north of Koumala on Easter Monday 2022.
Skid marks measuring 12.6m stained the Bruce Highway highlighting where Alan braked in an effort to avoid hitting Debbie Lee Hudson ’s Hyundai SUV, Mackay Magistrates Court heard in September 2023.
Hudson, who was also hospitalised with pelvic fractures as a result of the crash, had already pleaded guilty to one count of driving without due care and attention causing death.
She was jailed for five months, wholly suspended for 18 months, and disqualified from driving for nine months. A conviction was recorded.
FULL STORY HERE
Phillip Williams
A retired mental health nurse was exploring a Central Queensland town with the love of his life when he caused a fatal crash that claimed her life at a “notorious” intersection.
It happened in a matter of seconds on August 4, 2022 at Anakie Siding.
Andergrove father of two Phillip Williams drove through a give way sign on Anakie Sapphire Rd at the Capricorn Highway intersection about 12.30pm.
Mackay Magistrates Court heard he was not speeding and in fact had slowed down, but failed to give way.
The driver of an Isuzu towing a caravan had no time to react and collided with the front passenger side of Williams’s Subaru, where his wife Anne Williams was seated.
She suffered the full force of the impact and tragically died at the scene.
Magistrate Damien Dwyer accepted the crash was not deliberate and had “caused you the greatest price you could possibly pay”.
In December 2022 Williams pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention, was fined $4000 and a conviction was recorded. He was disqualified from driving for six months.
FULL STORY HERE
CONVICTIONS NOT RECORDED
Mark John Black
A driver who killed a Rebels bikie member in a crash sat shaking as he faced a magistrate for reckless driving causing death.
The dramatic scene unfolded after his lawyer pushed to have the 28 year old’s identity withheld out of fear someone would seek retribution.
“You look nervous,” Magistrate Damien Dwyer told Mark John Black before the sentencing hearing began.
“Perhaps with good reason.”
Black, from New South Wales and who had been travelling south on the Bruce Highway heading to the Mushroom Valley Festival, had merged into a turning lane for Cathu-O’Connell Rd at Yalboroo in the Mackay area just before midday on September 16, 2023.
As he turned across the oncoming traffic lane Black was focusing on an oncoming vehicle in the background and “did not notice the motorcycle until the last second, right before impact”, prosecutor Sheena Gravino said.
Bakers Creek dad and Rebels rider David ‘Dirty’ Collins, 71, was “catapulted into the windscreen” of Black’s blue Toyota hatchback before he was thrown over the bonnet of the car landing about 25m from the point of impact.
Black pleaded guilty in November 2023 to driving without due care and attention causing death, and was fined $12,000 and disqualified from driving for 12 months. A conviction was not recorded.
FULL STORY HERE
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