Road toll Qld: Police plea as deadly February hits new high

Police are urging Queenslanders to take greater care on the roads after 12 people were killed in crashes in the first week of February. SHOCKING FOOTAGE

Police have made an urgent plea for Queenslanders to take greater care on the roads after an astonishing 12 people were killed in crashes in the first week of February.

Queensland’s 2022 road toll now stands at 32 – six more than at this time last year – with 15 drivers, six passengers, eight motorcyclists and three pedestrians killed in crashes.

“We’ve currently lost 32 people this year on our roads,” Acting Chief Superintendent Ray Rohweder said.

“It’s quite easy to say that and it rolls off the tongue but in fact that’s 32 families, 32 lots of people’s friends.

“It has a great impact on society when we lose that many people.”

Chief Supt Rohweder said police were still seeing an extraordinary number of people killed due to speeding, drink or drug driving, inattention and not wearing seatbelts.

“Without going into details, one of the crashes this February, at least one of them, has been because the person was not wearing a seatbelt,” he said.

“Driving too fast and not wearing a seatbelt and all of a sudden it comes tragically together and the inevitable happens.

“Drink and drug driving are terrible things, fatigue – it’s all bad behaviour. But seatbelts should be second nature.

“You should just sit in the car and basically feel naked if you haven’t got it on.

There’s just no excuse for it, absolutely no excuse.”

Motorcyclists continued to be overrepresented, with more than 75 per cent of those deaths because of rider error.

“I find at times, things go well, and you think OK, the message is getting across,” Chief Supt Rohweder said.

“But then at times like these, you think to yourself we need to change behaviour, we need to educate people – and we will be enforcing as well of course.

“We really, really need to appeal to the public to concentrate on what they’re doing.

“It is the most import thing that you are doing at that time and you really need to concentrate.

“The life you save may be your own.”

Police release video of the aftermath of a crash when an allegedly drunk driver lost control at Mermaid Waters

As part of their plea, police released footage of two incidents where drivers were allegedly engaged in reckless behaviour.

In one, the police helicopter captured footage of a man and woman in a car travelling 200km/h in an 80km/h zone on Mount Lindesay Hwy on February 5.

The car was filmed stopping at roadworks at Munruben where the woman, an 18-year-old from Crestmead, dragged a bollard outside the window. Police allege she blocked the southbound lanes with bollards and created a significant hazard.

She was fined $551.

The driver, an 18-year-old Maudsland man, was fined $1286 and given a six-month licence suspension and eight demerit points for high-end speeding.

Police also released footage of a crash that occurred at Mermaid Waters on the same day where an allegedly drunk driver lost control of his car and landed it in a tree.

The man, from Labrador, allegedly recorded a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.15 per cent and was injured in the crash.