There has been another Easter holiday caravan accident on Queensland’s Bruce Highway.
The busy road was completely closed after a vehicle towing a caravan rolled about 10 kilometres north of Ayr about 1pm yesterday.
The Townsville Bulletin reports that the caravan and vehicle overturned near Lochinbar Road, Barratta.
A Queensland Police Service spokesperson said both lanes of the highway were blocked and closed for some time.
Initial reports indicated that at least one person was being treated by Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics.
A second person was reportedly treated for mild shock.
There was another accident involving a traveller on the same stretch of highway late last week in which a vehicle towing a caravan apparently got the ‘wobbles’ before jackknifing and colliding with a roadworks barrier.
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Time the Qld Government constructed a 4 lanes carriageway from Brisabe to Cairns. While the 40 year wait happens they should be encouraged to construct many many 3-5km passing lanes. Such a travesty that a well travelled road has so few passing lanes.
No use complaining just about the roads we travelled up and down the M1 Pacific Motorway doing 90k/hr and got passed by those monster vans doing 110k/hr.
Speed has a lot to do with it.
Just because you have the power to pull such a large van it doesn’t mean you have to power to slow it down quickly when you need to.
It’s about time vehicles towing a caravan are limited to 80k/m or no more then 90k/hr.
I can just imagine how happy the truckies would be if that was brought in.
Many of us caravaners travel at 90-95 kph now and often attract negative comments on social media. Some believe if we can’t or won’t travel at the speed limit we should stop driving completely as we are clearly incompetent.
If your caravan and car weigh more than 4.5 ton then your speed limit is 100kph. At 110 mph on the highway expect a ticket from the boys in blue. Maybe a form of log book system could also benefit everyone. Limiting time and fatigue. Just a thought.
We regularly travel at 100 km/h with our Golf 390 caravan towed by our Patrol Y62 and have never felt out of control. I don’t think limiting all caravans to a particular speed would be helpful.
If the road conditions are good and either you or your caravan – tow vehicle are incapable of travelling safely on the highway at 100kph then you should not be on he road in the first place. Having said that it is impossible to travel at 100kph on a lot of roads due to the complete failure of the subpavement that induces porposing in even the best set up combination. The Sunraisa highway in Victoria is a prime example where the road undulations at times could be used as woops on a motorcross track. As always you should travel at a speed to suit the road conditions but as I said previously, if the roads allows, you should be able to maintain 100kph or hand in your licence.
I think you’re being a little silly Doug with that comment about handing your licence in. I will continue to tow my caravan at a maximum speed of 90 km/h in good conditions or less as the conditions dictate. Please pass me when it is safe to do so.
Hmm, yet we do not hear just what was the Cause of these Crashes, was it Speed ,. Porr Caravan/ Vehicle Loading / OVER LOADING or simply mechanical problems or a Health Proble by the Driver actually Towing at the Time.???
When a truck or some other vehicles crash and shut the freeway or highway, no big deal. A caravan overturns and everyone has negative comments about the owner should get training before hitting the road, should do this speed, should load this way. In reality, all types of vehicles are crashing daily but no smart Arse comments on a daily basis. There are more cars and trucks etc in wrecking yards than there are caravans.
Apologies for opening up a can of worms here, however one very simple solution that will solve a lot of issues on the highways, is to have anyone that tows anything whatsoever, to obtain a separate towing licence! It could even have different licencing levels for varying lengths, heights and weights?? You would have to learn all about towing in all respects, not just be shown how to pass a test!! There are so many ignorant drivers on our roads that it’s got way out of control, hence all the issues and accidents increasing at a staggering rate…