Fatigue linked to multiple fatal crashes in Mackay Whitsundays in 2024

Police are urging drivers to take care as a horror trend emerged within the 2024 fatal crashes across Mackay Whitsunday district — and two cafes are offering freebies to save lives.

Aftermath of a crash on the Bruce Highway at Bloomsbury involving two trucks and a car on August 1, 2024. Two people, a man in his 70s and a man in his 20s suffered life threatening injuries and had to extricated. Two other people walked away from the crash stable. Photos taken at 6pm. Picture: Janessa Ekert

Mackay police are begging drivers to take care as a horror trend has emerged within the 2024 fatal crashes across the district.

This follows the death of a 72 year old driver of a Mazda Cx5 involved in a terrible crash on the Bruce Highway at Bloomsbury, two weeks after the three-vehicle collision.

Mackay Forensic Crash officer in charge Sergeant Michael Hollett said more than 90 per cent of the 16 deaths on the region’s roads could have been avoided as investigations uncover fatigue as the most common factor.

“It tells us that people just still aren’t taking enough responsibility for their own situation,” Sergeant Hollett said.

“They’re taking the risk of driving tired, but they’re putting other people at risk.”

Driver inattention was also linked to some of the fatal crashes and Sergeant Hollett revealed one motorcyclist killed in a crash had been more than three times the legal alcohol limit.

“Take responsibility for your actions on the road,” Sergeant Hollett said.

Mackay Forensic Crash Unit Officer in Charge Sergeant Michael Hollett. Picture: Lillian Watkins.

“People have just got to think beyond themselves because their actions on the road could affect somebody else.

“It’s a selfish attitude on the part of some people to drive tired or knowingly drive drunk.”

The Mackay Whitsunday district road toll for 2024 is 16, which is five deaths higher than the same time in 2023.

Free coffee to fight fatigue

Two Mackay businesses are teaming up with police to give free coffees to fatigued motorists for road safety week.

In order to combat mounting road fatalities, the Mackay-Whitsundays police are launching Operation ‘Rest Stop Rewards’ which will see motorists given free coffee vouchers for Stellarossa and Flaggy Rock Cafe.

Senior Sergeant Daniel Goldburg said that the program was meant to address the issue of fatigue which police were unable to “enforce their way out of”.

“The best way to stop fatigue is for motorists to stop and have a rest,” Senior Sergeant Goldburg said.

“We’re working with Flaggy Rock because the area between Mackay and Rockhampton is a well known fatigue area for us.”

Police across the region, particularly on the Bruce Highway between Mackay will watch for motorists displaying symptoms of fatigue, stop them and give them a free coffee voucher.

The program also targets drink driving, which is on the rise in Mackay.

Motorists will score a free coffee if they blow under the limit.

Joining Senior Sergeant Goldburg in operation Rest Stop Reward was owner of two Stellarossa franchises Mel Fowler and Flaggy Rock cafe owner Tanya Hawley.

Ms Fowler said in Rural View she sees many fatigued customers when they open at 5am.

“I think this is a magnificent idea for Mackay,” Ms Fowler said.

“Having young kids or teenagers on the road like I do myself, the safer we can keep them I’m happy to support that.”

Ms Hawley said the program was a “no brainer” and hoped it encouraged more Bruce Highway motorists to stop at her cafe .

“We get a lot of people coming in and saying ‘we didn’t know you were here’,” Ms Hawley said.

“When they drive they just get tunnel vision and forget that we’re here.”

Aftermath of a crash on the Bruce Highway at Bloomsbury involving two trucks and a car on August 1, 2024. Two people, a man in his 70s and a man in his 20s suffered life threatening injuries and had to extricated. Two other people walked away from the crash stable. Photos taken at 6pm. Picture: Janessa Ekert

Investigations into fatal crashes

A horror three-vehicle collision at Bloomsbury on August 1 that shut the highway for several hours is now a fatal crash after one of the drivers succumbed to his injuries in Townsville Hospital two weeks after the incident.

Police alleged a LandCruiser travelling north had crossed into the ongoing traffic lane striking an Isuzu truck towing a dog trailer, and then a white Mazda Cx5 travelling behind.

The LandCruiser rolled landing on its roof and passing motorists including a passing forensic crash officer, who were first on scene, pulled the horrifically injured driver from the upside down mangled wreck. He was still recovering from his injuries.

Aftermath of a crash on the Bruce Highway at Bloomsbury involving two trucks and a car on August 1, 2024. Two people, a man in his 70s and a man in his 20s suffered life threatening injuries and had to extricated. Two other people walked away from the crash stable. Photos taken at 6pm. Picture: Janessa Ekert

Tragically the driver of the Mazda, which was forced into bushland following the impact, was critically injured and died in hospital on August 14.

Sergeant Hollett also noted that of the fatal crashes this year two resulted in triple deaths and occurred just months apart.

The last triple fatal crash in the Mackay district was in November 2021 when a two-year-old boy, 18-year-old man and 59-year-old woman were killed after a vehicle flipped and rolled on Marlborough Sarina Rd at Clarke Creek.

Sergeant Hollett last week told this publication police were investigating whether or not defective tyres and road conditions were linked to the most recent crash that claimed the life of pregnant mum Mary De La Cruz, her mother Maria Estrada and a passenger in the second vehicle involved.

No one had been charged in relation to that crash.

Patrick Roots, 27, tragically died in a traffic incident on Pleystowe Connection Rd bridge on January 10.

2024 fatal crashes

January 10: Patrick Roots, 27, had been riding as part of a group when his motorbike slide out while riding over a rail line on the Pleystowe Connection Rd bridge and he collided with a trailer attached to a vehicle about 1.40pm.

February 7: A 38-year-old man died when the Subaru Impreza he was driving exploded into flames after colliding with a MG HS Wagon on the Bruce Highway near St Lawrence about 7.10pm

February 26: A 69-year-old Hampden man was involved in a serious two vehicle crash on the Bruce Highway at the Glendaragh Rd intersection at Glenella. He was flown to Townsville University Hospital and died on March 16.

David 'Warby' Grant is remembered as a devoted "community man" after his tragic death in a motorcycle crash on Eungella Dam Road on March 1, 2024. Photo: Contributed

February 29: Crediton man David ‘Warby’ Grant, 61, died in a single vehicle incident when the motorbike he was riding left Eungella Dam Rd and crashed sometime before 7am.

March 13: Zahn Rothery, 21, of Rockyview, tragically died after the Nissan Navara he was driving left Oxford Downs Sarina Rd near Nebo and hit a tree sometime before 11am.

Rockhampton region 21-year-old Zahn Rothery died in a crash at Nebo on March 13, 2024. Picture: Facebook

March 14: Adam Hinde, 64, died when the quad bike he was riding rolled down an embankment pinning him on a farming property on Wood Rd at Koumala. This will not count on the official district road toll for 2024.

April 8: A 57-year-old West Mackay man died when the Ford Ranger he was driving rolled down an embankment along the Peak Downs Highway at Epsom about 5.25pm.

May 10: Maxwell Gunn, 33, of Sarina, died after the motorbike he was riding left Sarina Beach Rd and hit a pole about 9.10pm.

The bus carrying 33 passengers was travelling north when it collided head on with a caravan being towed by a four-wheel drive driven by an elderly couple. Three passengers on the bus were killed while two others were seriously injured. Picture: Supplied

June 30: German women Aliya Tonga, 21 and Marissa Martin, 33 and Townsville grandmother Emma ‘Alli’ Sailor, 56 died after the Greyhound bus they were travelling on collided with a caravan on the Bruce Highway at Gumlu just after 11am. Bus driver Peter Jason Cafe has been charged with five counts of dangerous driving causing death of grievous bodily harm over the crash.

July 19: A 79-year-old Pinnacle man died after suffering life threatening chest injuries when the Mazda BT-50 utility he was driving left Mackay Eungella Rd and crashed about 12.30pm at Mirani.

July 25: A cyclist was killed in an alleged hit and run incident at the Bootooloo Rd and Wheelers Lane intersection at Bowen about 4.42am.

Mary Joy Estrada De La Cruz (left) was killed in a car crash alongside her mother. She was taking her parents (right) to see the home she was building with her husband, Edgar De La Cruz Jr, who remains in hospital. Picture: Facebook

August 1: A 72-year-old Clifton Hill man was critically injured when the Mazda Cx5 he had been driving, a LandCruiser and Isuzu truck and dog trailer were involved in a collision that shut the Bruce Highway at Bloomsbury for several hours. He died on August 14 in Townsville University Hospital.

August 11: 35-year-old Mary Joy Estrada De La Cruz, who had been pregnant with her first child, her 60-year-old mother Maria Estrada and a 28-year-old Gold Coast man all died after a Nissan Navara and Toyota LandCruiser collided on Shute Harbour Rd at about 1.pm at Mount Marlow.

Originally published as Fatigue linked to multiple fatal crashes in Mackay Whitsundays in 2024