Coomera Connector Gold Coast: Five years since fiery February 2016 M1 crash fast-tracked new road
A truck exploded into flames on the M1 after hitting flock of birds, shutting the Gold Coast down for an afternoon. But this horror crash ended up getting the city more than $2 billion.
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A FIERY car truck crash on the M1 paralysed the Gold Coast for an afternoon but its impact is still being felt half a decade later.
The crash on the Nerang stretch of the M1 on February 2, 2016 was influential in campaigns to solve the Gold Coast’s traffic problems, which will finally bear fruit this year when construction begins on the Coomera Connector.
A second arterial highway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast had been mooted long before 2016 with significant political consequences.
The Wayne Goss government had a near-death experience at the 1995 election, losing a swag of seats in Brisbane over its so-called “koala highway”, which would have provided extra connection between the capital and the Coast.
This was back in the days before the M1 when the winding Pacific Highway, nicknamed “the goat track”, was the only way to travel between the cities.
The project was deemed so politically poisonous that the Goss government abandoned it and its successor, the Borbidge government, instead focused its energies on building the M1.
As the M1 began clog in the subsequent decades, there was little movement on the issue publicly, aside largely from a proposed “intra-regional transport corridor” between Stapleton in the city’s far north and Carrara.
Land was quietly set aside for the project over a number of years. However, the project was controversially axed by the Newman government in 2013 against Gold Coast City Council wishes.
It was restored to the state’s long-term plans in 2015 by the Palaszczuk Government.
Everything changed on the afternoon of February 2, 2016 when a 19m refrigerated semi-trailer jackknifed on the bridge over Nerang River after running into a flock of cockatoos.
It exploded into flames, bringing all southbound traffic on the M1 to a halt.
The driver was saved by then-33-year-old Athen Barnaby who scaled the burning truck’s cabin wearing a pair of thongs and carried the man in his 60s to safety.
Mr Barnaby was hailed a hero for his actions, while other good Samaritans brought more than 120 bottles of water on to the M1 to rehydrate drivers who were trapped on the stretch of road for hours.
While some traffic was funnelled off on to Southport-Nerang Road, the crash left the Gold Coast at a standstill and immediately sparked calls from Mayor Tom Tate and traffic experts for a second M1 to be prioritised.
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The political pressure grew dramatically on the government as a result of the February 2016 crash to fast-track the creation of a new arterial road.
Campaigning by the Bulletin and city leaders for the project intensified through 2016 and 2017, particularly on the back of a series of major crashes that again brought traffic to a standstill.
This culminated at the 2017 state election when both Labor and the LNP went to the poll promising to build the road.
Construction of the Coomera Connector is set to begin in July after both the state and federal governments announced funding for the first stage in late 2020.
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