In what is becoming a frighteningly familiar image, the wreckage of another caravan can be seen strewn across another an Australian highway after yet another terrifying accident.
In this heartbreaking image taken by Matthew Newton for the Whitsunday Times, caravanner John Endres can be seen sifting through the debris of his van, salvaging any personal items he can.
He and his wife, Margaret, were uninjured in the head-on collision on the Bruce Highway, but the 18-year-old Mackay woman driving the other car was taken to hospital with facial injuries.
The accident happened earlier this week about 25 kilometres north of Proserpine and, given the obvious severity of the impact, the consequences could clearly have been a lot worse for everyone concerned.
As he pointed at the belongings scattered along the side of the highway, Mr Endres managed tyo keep it all in perspective.
“It doesn’t matter a sh*t about anything else,” he told a reported from the Whitsunday Times. “We’re okay.”
Police say the accident happened when the P-Plater struck the caravan while trying to overtake another car.
Travelling at about 80kmh, Mr Endres said he saw the P-plater pull out about 15-20 metres in front of them. He said he swerved as far over as he could without running off the road before the woman’s car ploughed into their caravan.
“There were two cars travelling close together in the other direction and one car decided to pass the other one while we were right beside them,” Mr Endres told the Whitsunday Times. “I’m still shaking. It just sends such a terrible feeling through you.”
* Why are we seeing so many terrible accidents involving caravanners? How can we stop them? Comment below
This is entirely the fault of the P plater maybe she may have avoided the crash if there was no van. But there are too many incidents with P platers, mostly female as well.
PeterH
Caravan roll-overs and smashes occur when in-experience and in-attention to road conditions, speed but by far the biggest cause is other drivers on the road doing stupid and dangerous manoeuvrers that put us poor caravaners in situation that require evasive action.
We travel regularly from Busselton to Wherever our caravan club meets and in the winter months to a property 20 odd km’s from Perth.
From our observations, impatience is the problem with a lot of car drivers. Passing on double white lines; tail gating. I drive at about 100 k/h, the speed limit here in WA when towing. If I can take a back road I will because of the fear of a prang.
I think in this instance it’s not about caravanners as it appears the young driver pulled out and straight into oncoming traffic, it could have been a truck or anything that got hit, because it was a caravanner does not make it a caravanning incident in my opinion.
Too often a caravan in an accident seems to suggest it’s the caravans fault!
Let’s report in a less sensational way , we already get the blame for enough things on the road!
I tow a caravan. A Swift Explorer. I notice on a frequent basis caravans and towing vehicles which are obviously badly loaded. The amount of gear that people put on their roof racks which move the centre of gravity to an unstable level and the boxes, wheels, and other paraphenalia loaded on the rear of vans has to be seen to be believed. There is obviously a lack of awareness of load distribution and the consequences of badly loaded tow vehicles and caravans not to mention tow ball loading. An awareness campaign through the media would go a long way to raising awareness of the ramifications of mal-loading
It was just bad luck that it happened to a caravan. I drive a bus all day in Perth when not towing a van and the same idiots are doing the same idiotic things regularly. Inexperience, lack of care or just plain stupid the result is the same. Put those same people in a high speed environment and the dopiness is magnified.
Pretty much the same thing happened to us last year. I know the pain and shock you are going through. It has changed our life completely but things are looking up now. Just bought a camper trailer and intend to travel again!
Worse happened to us young 20 year old fell asleep at the wheel on the hume highway and ran straight into the back of our Caravan travelling at 120km an hour. No one was hurt. But of course he’s just got to deal with loosing his car but now we have to deal with loosing our car and Caravan and even though it was not our fault we nbow have to find more money to buy another caravan as we’re not going to let a 20 year old dictate our future. What do we have to do to be safe from these drivers when we do all the right things when driving and towing.