Mackay-Whitsundays families left mourning by horror Bruce Highway crashes
In just seconds one Queensland woman’s life was forever changed after her entire family was killed in a terrible crash on the coastal road. And she’s not the only one.
Mackay
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Michelle Leeson had just climbed into bed after working a night shift when her world came crashing down with a knock at the door.
It was 1.30am January 27, 2011 and police had just told the Mackay mum her parents, brother and sister had been killed in a crash on the Bruce Highway about 3pm on Australia Day at Etna Creek, north of Rockhampton.
Peter and Diane Burridge, aged 53 and 54, Mark, 30 and Kristy, 14, from Sarina, had been travelling to Gympie to attend a funeral when their car rolled after coming in contact with a semi trailer – also travelling in the same direction – at the end of an overtaking lane.
Her whole family was killed in the crash.
“It was at the six month mark that the reality of it began to sink in,” she said.
“The 10 year anniversary was a particularly hard one for all of us.
“It continues to affect my life and that of my children as they get older, there will always be people missing at family gatherings.
“People think you get over it as time passes but you definitely don’t. It stays with you forever.”
In the six months following the crash Mrs Leeson successfully petitioned for a safety audit of the Bruce Highway between Mackay and Rockhampton.
Mrs Leeson said at the time there had not been enough signage to let drivers know “there was an overtaking lane ahead or that it was ending”.
“That was rectified shortly after the accident without my input,” she said.
Between January 1, 2011 and April 12, 2024 there have been 91 crashes claiming 108 lives on the Bruce Highway just in the Mackay District, which stretches from about St Lawrence to Bowen.
“There are still large stretches of road with nowhere to pull off the road safely in case of emergency,” Mrs Leeson said.
“There are also large stretches without overtaking lanes or opportunity to overtake.”
This, Mrs Leeson said, resulted in frustrated drivers and prompted “people take risks and put themselves and others in danger”.
In fact the results of an NRMA Insurance survey revealed 43 per cent felt the Bruce Highway was an unsafe road to travel on, while 53 per cent had witnessed a crash on the state highway.
More overtaking lanes of an adequate length for drivers to overtake safely were needed on the Bruce Highway, she said.
She has driven the Mackay to Rockhampton stretch many times since and said she always felt “a little anxious” driving by the location where her family lost their lives and where now sits a roadside memorial.
“I am always going to be a little scared to go on a road trip towards Rockhampton. I feel the closer you get to Brisbane the better the roads gets and I’ve also noticed some really good improvements in the road as you go north,” she said.
“I hope the stretch between Mackay and Rockhampton gets the same attention at some point.
“Anything that can be done to improve the safety of the highway is important as the death of family members has a ripple effect.
“It’s not just me, it’s my children who were still in primary school and had to deal with the trauma and grief of losing their grandparents and aunt and uncle.
“It changed who we are.”
‘I just knew it was him’
A Devereux Creek woman believes wider roads may have helped her husband avoid the deadly collision that claimed his life – she found out about the tragedy on social media.
Ken Townley had been travelling home from work on November 19, 2017 and was due about 6.30 – when he hadn’t arrived wife Helen began ringing his phone “but it went straight to message bank”.
“I decided to look on the QPS Facebook page to see whether there’d been an accident and he had to detour,” Mrs Townley said.
“It just said on there road was closed, one fatality, and … I just knew it was him because he was never late home or if he was going to be late home he’d always ring.”
Ken’s vehicle had been hit head-on on the Bruce Highway at Balberra, south of Mackay – the other driver was a 17-year-old P-plater who had been drinking and crossed into the wrong lane.
“He had nowhere to go because there’s just a big ditch … on his side and he couldn’t go over to the other side of the road because of the bridge,” Mrs Townley said.
“If there had been more of a shoulder on the road.”
Mrs Townley said the teen driver, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and served three months detention, 12 months probation and a conviction not recorded, pushed down on the accelerator as he fell asleep at the wheel.
“Ken could see him coming and Ken had dropped his speed down to 50km/h … but he’d come up to (the) metal barrier at Sandringham Creek,” Mrs Townley said.
The teen’s car slammed into Ken’s ute and pushed it back into the ditch – the 53 year old died at the scene.
It was more than 12 months before Mrs Townley could visit the site where she placed a roadside memorial, and even after 12 months it was hard.
“Knowing that you’re coming up to that location, I’d start crying before I’d even hit the spot,” she said.
“Then you start thinking, did he know that he was going to die, did he know that he wouldn’t survive the impact.
“You can be the safest driver, but it’s everybody else who’s on the road.”
Mrs Townley believes the highway should be turned into a dual carriageway, or at the very least widened.
“The Bruce Highway is just like a goat track these days,” she said.
“If you get a flat tyre, you can’t even pull over to change your tyre … because you can’t get off the road.”
Mrs Townley said politicians should drive the highway around this district rather than flying into town “to see it first hand … what it’s really like and why there is so many accidents”.
Helen’s new partner Chris Weyman-Jones, who is from Victoria, agreed describing the Bruce as “in a word, shocking”.
He said the surfacing needed repair immediately and as a major highway “it should be at least another lane wider”.
“You should have a verge or shoulder where you can actually pull over and change a tyre,” he said.
“It’s dangerous to pull over as it is.”
‘You don’t ever forget them’
Every fortnight Graham and Irene Wooley travel to Sarina to visit their two sons.
It is a solemn visit. There is no laughter, no smiling, no hugs.
Fenton and Mark Wooley are laid to rest at the crematorium after they were killed in a traffic crash on the Bruce Highway at Yalboroo on October 16, 2011.
The North Mackay couple say it wasn’t the highway that caused their only sons’ deaths, it was driver error.
Fenton and Mark had been heading to Proserpine early that Sunday morning on an impromptu fishing trip when another vehicle veered into the wrong lane causing a head on collision.
Fenton, who was the eldest and would have been 50 this year, died instantly. Mark passed away soon after.
The brothers had been passengers in a sedan. Mrs Wooley said if it had been a planned trip they would have taken Mark’s larger 4WD.
“Who knows if they had been in the big (car),” she said.
She had been watching her grandchild, Mark’s son, who began “playing up something terrible” while they were out shopping.
“That’s when we found out,” she said.
“We got a call at the shopping centre,” Mr Wooley said.
The driver of the other vehicle was charged with dangerous driving, but acquitted after a second jury trial.
Mrs Wooley said the location where her sons died had been made “100 per cent safer” with road upgrades since the tragedy.
“We don’t think it’s anything to do with the highway,” she said.
“The trouble today is everybody is always in a hurry,” Mr Wooley said.
“You must know your own capabilities.”
February 5 would have been Mark’s 41st birthday, a birthday he shared with his mum. The couple said Christmas and birthdays were no longer celebrated.
“They’re just not here,” Mr Wooley said.
“You learn to live with it,” Mrs Wooley said.
“You don’t ever forget them, being away.”
Mackay’s Road Accident Action Group life member and spokesman Graham Ransley said while there had been a lot of improvement to the Bruce Highway, there needed to be more overtaking lanes.
“Insufficient overtaking lanes causes frustration, frustration then results in erratic overtaking and speeding. You end up with erratic driving overtaking and head on crashes,” Mr Ransley said.
He suggested there should be an overtaking lane every 5km along the highway giving drivers options to overtake slower moving vehicles such as caravans.
Mr Ransley said this was a major cause of driver frustration on the road.
“Many travel significantly under the speed limit and cause long convoys of traffic,” he said.
“That’s why my recommendation would be that we would have an overtaking lane every 5km.”
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Originally published as Mackay-Whitsundays families left mourning by horror Bruce Highway crashes
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