The people we’ve lost on our roads in the past six weeks

The city’s top cop pleads for motorists to be considerate, slow down and be safe around heavy vehicles after truck crashes have killed eight people in the Darling Downs since June 9.

As the Darling Downs road death toll started to climb in June, the region’s top police officer directed more units to patrol our highways.

The winter holiday period is traditionally a deadly time on our roads, and Southern Regional Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon was hoping to avoid repeating the carnage of years gone by.

Sadly, through a combination of poor decision-making and inattention, eight people have died on Toowoomba country roads since June 9.

Four of those fatal crashes involved a collision between passenger vehicles and trucks.

Yesterday the tragedy continued when a mother and baby died after their car collided head-on with a truck west of Millmerran.

Maryborough's Lachlan Lethbridge, 18, was killed in a crash when his ute collided with a truck at South Brook.

Mr Condon called on all road users to be patient.

“We really need to work together to exercise good judgment on our roads,” he said.

“From time to time there is an engineering fault, but the majority of deaths occur when people make poor decisions.”

Road policing units patrolling the Darling Downs’ three main highways are reporting dangerous incidents where motorists are not giving heavy vehicles the space they need to operate safely.

Mum Jessica Greig, 29, and her daughter Giselle Greig, 12, died when the SUV they were travelling in collided with a truck on Toowoomba-Cecil Plains Road.

“When you are overtaking these vehicles you have to take into consideration that you are overtaking a very long vehicle,” Mr Condon said.

“Some of the fatalities have occurred when people have come back thinking they have passed the truck, have clipped its front and rolled.

“When the truck leaves distance between them and the car in front, that is not a gap for you to go into – that is their safe braking distance.”

Crashes involving trucks claimed the lives of Lachlan Lethbridge, 18, on the Gore Highway at Southbrook on June 28, mum Jessica Greig and her daughter Giselle at Mt Irving on July 8 and 24-year-old Dalby social worker Crystal Coffee at Bowenville on July 9. Mr Condon said each death was avoidable.

Dalby woman Crystal Coffee died when her car collided with a truck on the Warrego Highway at Bowenville.

“Our people are sick of going to fatalities,” he said.

“The paramedics and firefighters do an outstanding job to extricate people then you have the emergency workers at the hospital who have to patch these people up – some will be handicapped for the rest of their lives.

“There are also family members who have lost loved ones. There are 100 good reasons why we have to be smarter in the road.”

Originally published as The people we’ve lost on our roads in the past six weeks