Kuranda Range truck rollover reignites new road debate following $1.6m study

Wednesday’s Kuranda Range incident could not have come at a worse time for the authors of a $1.6m traffic study, as fresh photos and video reveal the true extent of the horrific crash.

FRUSTRATED motorists were quick to point out the findings of a $1.6m traffic study following a truck rollover and subsequent Kuranda Range closure on Wednesday.

The Kennedy Hwy was closed for more than seven hours after a truck rolled near the highway’s “hairpin” at MacAlister Range about 1pm.

It left two men in their 30s trapped in the truck for a number of hours, before they were extradited and taken to Cairns Hospital with leg and pelvic injuries, in a stable condition.

Due to the size of the truck and complexity of the road, it meant crews were always in for a lengthy clean-up with the road still closed at 8.30pm, Wednesday.

And although there is never a good time for a traffic crash, it came just days after a $1.6m state government traffic study, which looked at transport corridors to the Tablelands, identified no alternative route to address the Kuranda Range Rd would be needed for 30 years.

The report stated the Kuranda Range Rd would not reach full capacity until 2051 based on a one per cent growth rate.

Those findings, which had already received heavy backlash from road users and political leaders, were again slammed on Wednesday following the crash, with social media users joking it would “take 30 years” to clear the road.

Long-term advocate of an alternative route and Kennedy MP Bob Katter was quick to remind the state government that the “Kuranda road closes on average 44 times a year for an average of seven hours for each closure.”

“Here it is again, another rollover on the Kuranda Range. The road is not made for trucks. It is a beautiful tourist road, slow and winding, through a beautiful jungle,” Mr Katter said.

Barron River MP Craig Crawford said there was more to the report than the findings which were frustrating Far Northerners the most.

“I didn’t write the report, I didn’t tell the department what to write. But of course I would have liked to see it say we need an upgrade,” Mr Crawford said.

“If you read the report, it says based on volume we can’t mount a case for an alternative route.

“But that doesn’t mean there can’t be a new road. We just can’t use volume as an argument.

“But it also does say now is the time to start looking at new corridors for a new road. So it doesn’t rule it out, it rules it in.”

Originally published as Kuranda Range truck rollover reignites new road debate following $1.6m study