Qld road toll: Police reveal January to March ‘one of the darkest moments’ for deaths

A top Queensland cop says 61 deaths on the state’s roads in the past three months has made it “one of the darkest” periods in his 30-year career.

One of Queensland’s top cops has revealed the past three months on Queensland roads is “one of the darkest moments” he’s witnessed in over three decades on the job.

Acting Chief Superintendent Ray Rohweder has this morning made a heartfelt plea to road users, as eight people this weekend lost their lives on the state’s roads, including five on Sunday.

“This is one of the darkest moments of road safety in Queensland in my 35 years as a sworn police officer,” Acting Chief Supt Rohweder said.

“We just really need people to take stock of what they’re doing.

“Think about what you’re doing, respect other road users and respect yourself. The consequences that unfold as a tragedy of this behaviour is life long.”

Tragically, 61 people have died on Queensland’s road this year to date, compared to last year’s 41 deaths in the same time period.

While this morning, a driver was caught driving 130km in a 70km zone during torrential rain.

One person have died in a fiery crash at Tara. Picture: Peta McEachern/Chinchilla News

“That is weaponising a motor vehicle as far as I’m concerned,” acting chief Supt Rohweder said.

“It’s simply going to end very very badly.

“We can’t have people on our roads driving like that and expect the police to be able to keep the rest of the community safe.”

Chief Supt Rohweder said Queensland had seen eight lives lost on our roads over the weekend alone.

“And we have also a number of people in critical condition in various hospitals throughout Queensland as well,” he said.

“That means we have to drive to the conditions and if we don’t do so, we inevitably end up in trouble and inevitably someone gets hurt and - it would appear this weekend - loses their lives.

“I’m really appealing to Queenslanders to drive safely during this wet weather period particularly but also throughout the rest of this year.”

There were no fatalities in this crash at the intersection of Lake Clarendon Way and Forest Hill-Fernvale Road, where a truck and mini bus collided, but three patients were critical and seven others were taken to hospital. PHOTO: Ali Kuchel

Chief Supt Rohweder said the recent spate of fatal crashes had “been for a variety of reasons”.

“Though, a number of them have been from drivers losing control in the wet conditions and also drivers deciding to overtake when it’s not appropriate to do so,” he said.

“So whilst these are only preliminary to our current investigations around all of these matters, we just really need people to take stock of what they’re doing.

“We’ve lost another motorcyclist again this weekend. Again that’s concerning because this year we have lost too many motorcyclists.”