Another nasty caravan crash puts spotlight back on state of Bruce Highway

Published: October 11, 2024

An accident earlier this week on Queensland’s Bruce Highway in which a car towing a caravan hit a truck carrying a house, and then another car, has once again put the spotlight on the safety record of the road.

The latest crash happened at Curra, about 20 kilometres north of Gympie. It is understood a caravan under tow side swiped the house before colliding with another car.

One man in his 40s was taken to Gympie Hospital in a stable condition with head, abdominal and chest injuries, while others were assessed at the scene.

According to research carried out by the RACQ motoring group, motorists are between three and five times more likely to die on the road than in crashes on the Pacific Motorway or Hume Motorway.

Josh Cooney from the RACQ told the ABC last month that urgent action was required from both levels of government, particularly the Commonwealth.

“The Bruce Highway is the backbone of this state and it’s broken,” Mr Cooney said.  “People are losing their lives, people are getting maimed on this highway.”

The ABC reports that modelling by the Department of Transport and Main Roads indicates it would cost about $9 billion to achieve a minimum three out of five-star safety rating along the entire highway.

Bruce Highway funding has become a sticking point between Queensland and the Commonwealth.

The previous 80:20 funding split was reduced to 50:50 last year, but the Queensland State Government would like to see the Federal Government commit to picking up the lion’s share again.

Queensland is holding state elections later this month, but the state’s current Transport Minister, Bart Mellish, recently told the ABC that no other state has these large urban centres connected by the one road so an 80:20 split was ‘absolutely the way to get this going’.

“What we’ve done from that is picked out the sections that we think purely on a safety basis would be the first cabs off the rank if we have a targeted Bruce Highway safety package,” Mr Mellish said.

He said the money would be spent on adding more overtaking lanes and rumble strips, wider centre lanes, safer right-hand turns and roadside safety barriers.

The Federal Opposition recently committed to reinstating the 80:20 funding split, but the RACQ says a bipartisan approach is what is needed.

“A move away from the pre-existing funding split for new regional transport infrastructure is a step in the wrong direction and undermines efforts to bring the Bruce up to an acceptable standard,” the RACQ’s General Manager Advocacy, Joshua Cooney, said. “Going back to 80:20 is a good start, but we also need both levels of government and both sides of politics to commit to a 10-year funding plan that does not fall victim to political cycles.”

The RACQ has long advocated to Fix the Bruce, and believes the Federal Government must do the heavy lifting to bring the road up to scratch when compared with other national highways.

“On average, 29 people die in crashes on the Bruce Highway each year and 360 are seriously injured,” Mr Cooney said. “More than half of those fatal crashes are head-on collisions … the Bruce is a dangerous and unforgiving highway and our communities are paying the price.”

  • Do you find driving on the Bruce Highway to be a nerve-wracking experience? Comment below.

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Yes it’s a goat track compared to the highway in WA not enough room for the amount of trucks and caravans using it I found the truck drivers are fustrated as they all want to do the 100KM speed limit but the road is not good enough when towing a caravan and then chances are taken. That road needs to be wider with more overtaking lanes. How many caravan accidents do you see in the other major highways

We recently travelled the section from Townsville to Rockhampton towing our caravan. We found the road to be horrendous! The single lane each way is not sufficient, the lack of overtaking lanes increases danger, maintenance on damaged edges and uneven roads is lacking. Our roads have suffered ever since the introduction to the ‘super councils’.

When we travel via our van we only use the BRUCE if and when we have to. Even the outback single lanes roads are much better,
Because of the fact that 50% of Queenslanders live in the non-urban city of Brisbane, the government should hang its head in shame and get on with major road works like dual highways from Gympie to Cairns. The cost of essential work outweighs the millions of $$$ that the governments spend on some unrealistic projects, like recently approving the spending of M$90 on a CATS yes the furry animal CATS.

The federal government gave $600,000 to a foreign country to establish a football team. Not a word about it from the opposition so I assume they approve of it too. Morally and ethically wrong when we have huge debt and other critical issues. Maybe Messes Albanese, Dutton and Littleproud should front aussie tent and car dwellers and tell them why a football team in Papua New Guinea is more important than a roof over their head. I would also help to moderise some of our roads. As we travel around we still cross one lane bridges on major highways.

SPOT ON.

I have done a section of it on a pushbike with my dog in his trailer, I did 100km and then got the hell off it, that was in 2016, before that I drove it a few times whilst truck driving for the army, back in the 80’s and bloody dangerous then. When I go to QLD now I don’t go near the coast to avoid that death hwy.

50% Head ons. So someone is on the wrong side of the road at the wrong time. How is that the roads fault

Frustration caused by lack of overtaking lanes could be your answer!

Spot on

A sideswipe is the same as a head on. Contact between vehicles travelling in opposite directions

The highway is below par. After travelling in QLD, SA, VIC and NSW highways and regional roads all could do with mega dollars of work. The roads don’t help but they are not in charge of the vehicles. Because of the number of trucks on the Bruce we dodge it as much as possible

Yes, I agree the highway is substandard and probably dangerous in some areas but surely there was a pilot vehicle in front of this truck/house combination giving motorists plenty of time to pull over to safety. Blaming this crash entirely on the highway is taking it a bit far, surely there is some driver error here as well.

I have noticed that the escort car drives don’t talk to anyone unless you’re in a truck…

The Bruce is certainly infamaous for its current state of disrepair, but if you’ve travelled from Goondiwindi to Toowoomba on the Leichhardt/Gore Hwy recently, you’ll know what bad really means! Its a shocker, downright dangerous in many parts, and complete lack of overtaking lanes as well. I travelled it last November with a van in tow, and just came through it again a few days ago with the van – nothing, not a cent seems to have been spent to fix this main southern transport route. I dropped to just 85Kmh in some parts to be somewhat safer!

You can add the Newell to your list as well Brian.

How can you hit a HOUSE? Safety record of this Hwy is known to be atrocious. I think by now everyone towing a Caravan should be aware of this. A house on a trailer is bound to have had pilot vehicles fore and aft. Don’t compare it to other roads take it for what it is, and be careful, or avoid it. Cheers

The pilots call trucks to advise of width, why not tell caravanners as we are the same width. I drove trucks for many years prior to retirement 10 years ago and always got a call from an escort driver. I now drive a mototorhome of the same width. Same bloke, same width vehicle, same narrow roads but not a call.

Unless your in a truck they don’t talk to you

Because 95% of caravan drivers don’t listen to their UHF! You pay anything from a couple of hundred dollars upwards for a communications device, then turn the bloody thing off, right when you need it! Sure, foul language can be an issue, but the drivel is mostly in the cities, not on the highways.

Bruce Highway
Travelled the Bruce Highway from Cairns to Brisbane
With my van truckies are very patient if caravaners considered the truckies are working while nomads are tracking around the state some courtesy allowing those that drive the highway for work
Have seen so much arrogance and stupid selfish actions from caravan towers and especially camper trailer drivers doing 120 kmh plus swaying all over the road
I am not perfect by any means but if I see a truck or build up of traffic I pull over and allow traffic to pass
As has been stated road is determining but still drivable if a little consideration to other road users is used

The road has issues but they just require a bit of maintenance
You want to talk goat track try the N T roads then comment

The Bruce Hwy scares the crap out of me. Mind you, the outback roads in Qld aren’t much better.

I agree with Gavin and Mike when you see a wide load coming you slow down and move over as far as possible it’s not the roads fault and yes I agree with Brian the Leichhardt is much worse my wife always complains of a crook back after travelling on just a part of it.

We travelled on the Bruce all the way to Townsville at the beginning of Sep and keep wondering why is this upgraded country road still called a ‘Highway’? Do you know of any other highway in the world with narrow gage sugar cane train crossings and road shoulders which are sloping into a ditch? This country road is not fit to carry even 1/2 of the traffic travelling on it nowadays.

We travel the Bruce highway towing a van and don’t find it a worry but there was an accident near Prosapine and traffic was held up for hours and we had our UHF on and the dreadful impatience of a truck driver was very worrying. He sounded insane. It is this impatience and bad driving that causes accidents. We can blame the roads but it is the drivers who should be better behaved.

The Bruce is not the problem. It is the users

Absolutely. We try never to travel on the Bruce Highway. We’d rather take our chances on the inland highways, but to head far north you still have go over to the Bruce highway to head north. The road surface between Proserpine and Mackay is atrocious not to mention other parts as well. Just get it done.

It always has been you cannot trust anyone thats trailing behind a semi i have seen how the go to pass but realise you are coming towards them i have also on mant time people pass on the double lines

It seems that there are two camps here- one blames the Bruce Hwy and the other blames the drivers. For anyone in both camps blindly believing they are correct, think again. Traffic accidents generally occur as the result of not one cause or reason but several. A recipe that includes inexperienced caravan drivers, poor roads, impatient drivers on deadlines, poor communication, shall always be disaster awaiting. I recently backed off on a dual overtake on the northern reaches of the Bruce with a caravan and called a vehicle through on UHF. The unidentified caravan driver in front who was on UHF refused to allow the last of the vehicles through and almost caused a serious accident with a 4WD driver attempting an overtake when it was out of the question. So many causes in one place but no accident. Sheer blind luck saved the day.

In 2022 our brand new towbar fitted to our new car by the same company, fell apart within a couple of months whilst towing on the Bruce Highway. It was a throw-away item. The Gympie company that replaced the tow-bar blamed the Bruce Highway condition, & an employee there said the QLD roads were never intended to carry the huge road trains that use them, hence the roads are ruined from day one. We noticed ruts in many roads that follow the truck wheels. Perhaps the answer is to build better roads to carry heavy trucks from the start, or reinstate trains to help ease the load.

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