Flashback: Tamborine Mountain’s infamous road and it’s dangerous history
Tamborine Mountain’s infamous Henri Robert Drive has been the location of several horror crashes across the decades. Find out the history of one the the Coast’s most dangerous roads.
Gold Coast
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Tamborine Mountain’s infamous Henri Robert Drive has been the location of several horror crashes across the decades.
Most famously it was the site of the September 25, 1990 “death on the mountain” accident which left 11 people dead and 42 injured when a tour bus carrying elderly tourists from a Newcastle senior citizens social club crashed.
A decade ago, just two days before Christmas, it again was the location of another bus crash which brought back terrifying memories for many long-time emergency service workers.
It was just after noon on December 23, 2012 when a 20-seat tour bus carrying 14 Chinese tourists and four guides/translators crashed down a 40m embankment into thick scrub.
The crash left all passengers injured, with most unable to walk.
The moment sparked a large-scale rescue effort which required firefighters to scale the embankment carrying the jaws of life, which were used to free the passengers from the wreckage.
Many were pinned within the bus.
Once freed, the worst injured were taken by ambulance to the base of Henri Robert Drive and from where they were rushed to hospital by helicopter.
Of the 18 aboard, 16 were hospitalised.
Miraculously, nobody died.
Investigations revealed the crash had occurred after the driver lost control on a steep turn near the base of the stretch of road.
Inspector Steve Pyne, of Coomera Police, told the Bulletin on the day the passengers had been “incredibly lucky”, while the crash sparked renewed calls to ban heavy vehicles from the windy road.
Scenic Rim Ratepayers Association president Astrid Kennedy said at the time: ‘‘Everyone on the mountain is aware of the road – it’s the tourists that are the problem”.
‘‘They don’t know it’s dangerous. We are very concerned that tourists don’t know,’’ she said.
“We’ve got to stop heavy vehicles using it, there are very few run-offs for a bus.’’
The bus crash came just two weeks after five people were killed on the M1 in one of Queensland’s worst road disasters.
The crash occurred at Coomera when drunk driver Jordan Hayes-McGuinness drove at speeds of at least 141km/h in the shoulder lane and slammed into a broken-down stationary Holden which was waiting for the RACQ.
Just one person, teenager Thomas Bayer, survived.
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