Damning Bruce Highway report highlights ‘deadly cost’ of vital Qld road sections left in disrepair

The section of the Bruce Highway where three people lost their lives in a horrific recent crash has been deemed the worst on the highway.

The section of Queensland’s Bruce Highway where three people lost their lives in a horrific bus crash at Gumlu has been deemed the worst on the highway in a new report.

James Cook University adjunct professor Colin Dwyer and retired health professional Tracy Cheffins drove over 1600km along the highway from July 10-23.

Mr Dwyer said they had been surveying comparative safety standards on the highway for eight years and advocating for safer standards as part of the Northern Bruce Action Group.

“We do this because we care about the people who use and depend on this vital facility,” he said.

“There have been improvements on the Bruce over the past eight years … but more work is required to bring this crucial road up to acceptable safety levels”

The Courier-Mail’s Help Our Highway campaign, launched in April, revealed almost half the Bruce Highway failed basic safety ratings and just 10 per cent was assessed as extremely safe, with stretches in regional Queensland emerging as the worst danger zones.

Having compiled 250 pieces of safety data across 11 regions, Mr Dwyer and Dr Cheffins’ comparison of regions and electorates found ‘unsurprisingly’ many northern sections of the Bruce Highway failed their safety check.

Having compiled 250 pieces of safety data across 11 regions, Mr Dwyer and Dr Cheffins' comparison of regions and electorates found ‘unsurprisingly’ many northern sections of the Bruce Highway failed their safety check. Picture: Colin Dwyer

The worst seven sections of the Bruce were all above Gladstone, with the worst being from Bowen to Home Hill, where the deadly Greyhound bus crash occurred.

Member for Burdekin Dale Last said the state government had left sections of the Bruce in disrepair when they wound up the Bruce Highway Trust two years ago.

“Queenslanders are demanding the brakes are slammed on Labor’s decade of failure on the Bruce Highway, we must get critical safety improvements underway,” he said.

“There is a deadly cost for a government that prioritises tandem trips in luxury jets instead of getting shovels in the ground on the infrastructure our State needs.”

According to the new report almost half of the 100 kilometre stretch of road had no median strip, the highest number of narrow bridges and the most road defects per 100km.

The professor said despite recent overtaking lane additions and road patchwork on this section it still had the worst density of potholes with 88 per 100 kilometres.

“It’s interesting that despite this work it hasn’t been enough to raise it off the bottom of our safety rankings,” he said.

“The Pine Rivers to Gympie section had no potholes and very few road deformities.”

The worst section for median separation was also Bowen to Home Hill, with almost 40km of no median strip in seven different sections.

Dr Cheffins said centre and verge barriers were notably used in Victoria and Sweden to reduce fatalities from head on and run off road crashes, but not north of Gympie.

“There are very few centre barriers north of Gympie, apart from some short sections close to the major centres,” she said.

“We counted 50 significant highway bends without any verge barriers. The Bruce south of Gympie has verge barriers, as do the Pacific and Victorian regional highways.”

Mr Dwyer said the median strip in most northern sections has been taken from the safety verge.

“Northern NSW has a dual lane separated carriage way. Why can’t the people of North Queensland have the same?” he said.

Dr Cheffins said inconsistent use of speed limits meant less safe sections of the Bruce allowed higher speeds and argued for lower limits in those sections to reduce crash impact.

Mr Dwyer agreed drivers need to take responsibility for their actions and should drive to the conditions but officials should take responsibility for the quality of roads they build.

“Ordinary drivers, making ordinary mistakes should not kill themselves or others,” he said.

Originally published as Damning Bruce Highway report highlights ‘deadly cost’ of vital Qld road sections left in disrepair