Qld road toll: The regions most at risk as state numbers surge

As Queensland stares down the barrel of its biggest road toll in a decade, one region stands out. THE BLACK SPOTS | THE VICTIMS

Bitumen roads are becoming emergency departments as Queensland stares down the barrel of its worst road toll in over 10 years – and at least 80 per cent of deaths have happened on regional roads.

The state has lost 172 people to road trauma – up 13 per cent from last year – and is on track to bury 113 more crash victims by Christmas which would be Queensland’s deadliest year since 2009.

But the families of this year’s victims want you to know they are not numbers, they are children like Catelyn, 5, and Chris, 8, who were killed with their mother Lotsy Jose as the family drove to start a new life in Brisbane.

They are doting grandfathers like Bill Collins who will never see his 13 grandchildren again and mothers and daughters like Jessica and Giselle Greig, “two peas in a pod” who died on their way to a family reunion.

The Courier-Mail will today begin an extensive road safety campaign with the state’s peak motoring authority RACQ to reveal where and why people are dying on Queensland’s roads.

The epicentre of the crisis is the Wide Bay-Burnett region which has become the state’s “Bermuda Triangle” of road fatalities, according to RACQ figures.

It includes the top four state electorates hit hardest by this year’s toll: Callide, Nanango, Burnett, and Gympie which have recorded a combined 36 deaths up until July.

Lotsy Jose and her children Catelyn, 5, and Chris, 8, were killed as the family drove to start a new life in Brisbane.

Acting Chief Superintendent Ray Rohweder is baffled by the spike, especially during Covid when less people should be on the roads.

“I’m at a loss to explain what is occurring,” Supt Rohweder said.

“The road toll was going up prior to Covid last year and has continued.”

Along with regional deaths, motorcyclists are also over-represented in this year’s road toll.

Forty-four riders have died so far – 46 per cent more than the same time last year – and authorities suspect an increase in motorcycle licence registration to be partly behind the surge.

Speeding and drink-driving were factors in more than 60 per cent of fatalities, but police said driver distraction could play an equally big role – but was harder to register.

Astoundingly, in the 276 road deaths last year 40 per cent of people were not wearing a seatbelt.

And while drivers continue to refuse to buckle up, text and take the wheel while drunk, frontline workers are left to – quite literally – pick up the pieces.

They are the ones left to make life-shattering calls to family members and zip up the body bags on the highways.

Supt Rohweder said as well as an emotional toll, road accidents also take an enormous amount of police resources that could be spent in other areas assisting the public.

He has the grim task at 8am every day of opening a report into overnight deaths.

“I open it with dread, thinking about the senseless waste of life that those figures represent,” he said.

Supt Rohweder firmly believes that if people had seen the crumpled and confused faces of people being told their loved ones were not coming home, less people would die on the roads.

“It’s the shock and then it’s almost like it doesn’t resonate, people will ask what hospital are they in?’ And you have to say actually they’re not in a hospital, they’ve died.

“Then they will say you must be mistaken, that can’t be right, it must be someone else.

“I would say to anyone thinking of doing something stupid in the motor vehicle, would you do it if you had to be the person that knocked at the door?”

Jessica and Giselle Greig are among Queensland’s 172 victims of road trauma so far in 2021.

RACQ spokeswoman Lauren Ritchie said leaders should look at the state electorate areas with the highest road tolls and make them the “to-do list” for better roads and infrastructure.

“The reality is 90 per cent of crashes come down to human error in some shape or form,” she said.

“But when we make a mistake, if those roads aren’t forgiving, if there aren’t guard rails or audible lines or enough shoulder on the side of the road, those crashes become fatal when they need not have been.

“Let’s have a look at these electorates that are really the to-do list and look at these regions and say Callide, that’s the number one place for fatalities this year, let’s start there.”

Ms Ritchie said the only way to get the toll to zero is to have “safer roads, safer drivers and safer cars”.

“This is a shocking statistic and we have to look as a community and ask what on earth is going on? Why are we dying at such a rapid rate on our roads?

“There is no rhyme or reason to why we should be seeing this level of death on our roads.”