Police’s urgent plea to Darling Downs drivers following spate of fatal crashes

As families across the Darling Downs head into Christmas without their loved ones, police are pleading with the community to exercise caution or more could suffer the same fate as Queensland ticks closer to having the most deadly road toll on record in 2024.

Picture: Kevin Farmer

Multiple Darling Downs families have been shattered by preventable deadly crashes in the past months and police are warning if people don’t exercise caution more could suffer the same fate.

Within days of police announcing their new road safety program Operation Mistletoe last Friday, three people under the age of 25 were dead due to car crashes across the district.

Darling Downs Chief Inspector Danny Shaw is pleading for the community to “take it easy” on the roads and ensure they arrive at their destination.

Darling Downs District Chief Inspector Danny Shaw at the Road Safety Week conference at PCYC Toowoomba on Friday, May 3, 2024.

“We want people to be able to enjoy the holiday period with their friends and family, that’s what we want, there’s nothing worse than ending up in hospital at Christmas time or worse.”

Chief Inspector Shaw said over the past several months, a handful of lives have been lost on the roads, and in part speed was a contributing factor, along with inexperienced driving, and intoxication.

“When you look at the statistics for injuries and fatals, generally speaking, the drivers are under the age of 25,” he said.

He said generally people within that age group are more likely to take risks which creates dangers on the road.

“Then you mix in speed, you mix in a level of inexperience, and something changes whether that’s road conditions or an animal running onto the road, something of that nature, then quite often you can get a catastrophic event,” he said.
“The impact is severe, from the impact on family and friends, not to mention it’s a life changing event for many people who have injuries that occur which they never recover from.

“So we really need to reduce that road trauma because it’s not just the fatalities, it’s the injuries that occurs, the time it takes to recover, is lost time with family and away from work.

“You really need to drive to the road conditions and be really careful out there, to be considerate of others and to protect yourself.”

He said the speeds at which people were caught driving was extremely concerning and a recipe for disaster.

“It’s quite insane, we had one instance recently where a young man was caught doing 172 in 100 zone,” he said.

“It’s just way too fast.

“If something unexpected happened whether that’s mechanical to the vehicle, an animal is on the road, a child, or alternatively something happened to the road condition like hitting some gravel, you just really just don’t know.

“And this levle of speeding is not an isolated incident, numerous people have been caught high range speeding.”

As families across the Darling Downs head into Christmas without their loved ones, police are pleading with the community to exercise caution or more could suffer the same fate as Queensland ticks closer to having the most deadly road toll on record in 2024.

In November, a 19-year-old man was caught doing 125km in a 80km zone along Freestone School Rd, and an 18-year-old was caught going 60km over the 100km speed limit at Rangeville along Tourist Rd.

On the November 23 a 23-year-old man lost his licence after being clocked at 173 in a 100km zone on the Warrego Hwy at Hatton Vale – at the time he was riding his motorcycle without his hands on the handlebars.

Those caught driving more than 40km/h over the limit will be fined $1845, and have their licence suspended.

It is a $1209 fine for those caught doing more than 30km/h, and a loss of six demerit points, and driving more than 20km/h is a $725 fine and loss of four points.

Those caught driving at least 11km/h over the limit will cop a $482 fine and lose three points, and those doing less than 11km over the limit a $322 fine and loss of one point