A grey nomad couple have survived after their 4WD and caravan ran off the Bruce Highway and rolled down a gully.
The accident happened on a notorious section of the highway just south of Gympie. The Gympie Times reports that the couple’s vehicle was in collision with a truck before it went off the road near the Coles Creek Rd intersection.
The pair was taken to hospital for observation. Their car and caravan were destroyed.
It is the third accident on the same stretch of highway in the past few days. Although no one died in the most recent incidents, a number of fatalities have occurred in the past on the same stretch of road.
The state of the Bruce Highway and what can be done to improve its condition and its safety record have been put in increasing focus in recent months.
The head of the International Road Assessment Programme, Rob McInerney, said the major issue was that high-speed Bruce Highway traffic was separated by little more than a thin white line.
“If you’re about to head down onto a one-star road you are at high speed about 100 kilometres an hour, you’re driving towards another car or a truck with just that little bit of white line separating you and them,” he said. “You’re only really 300mm away from a head-on crash that could kill you … most of the Bruce Highway is undivided and that’s a big problem.”
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