Thorough investigation underway into Bruce Highway crash

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Queensland government says a thorough investigation is underway into the bus crash on the Bruce Highway that killed three people and left two others with critical injuries.

Transcript

00:00It's brought road safety to the fore yesterday.

00:04We know the opposition was criticising the government for not keeping Bruce Highway maintenance

00:09up to date.

00:10The government said it was too early to say whether that was a significant contributor

00:14in this crash.

00:15But what we understand is that overall in Queensland, car accidents are up.

00:20Compared to this time last year, it's up about 14 per cent.

00:24So there is a wider discussion happening at the moment about, you know, obviously there's

00:29more traffic on the road, it's school holidays, it's caravan season here in North Queensland.

00:34And for your viewers as well that aren't from Queensland, the Bruce Highway is actually

00:37the longest road in the state.

00:39It goes all the way from Brisbane to Cairns.

00:42And so this is a really significant, you know, roadway and a significant crash.

00:47And this sort of crash has people worried.

00:50Yesterday, we spoke to a number of people along that highway caravan, people in caravans.

00:55We spoke to a pub owner at Gumloo who said she actually lost one of her own staff to

01:00a crash on the Bruce Highway.

01:02And then we also spoke to some Greyhound passengers who were on that service immediately after

01:08the bus that crashed.

01:09They were stuck on the roads for 26 hours with those delays in traffic.

01:13Here's how they felt about bus travel after hearing the news.

01:16For like maybe seven hours, just in that little village where there was nothing to do, which

01:22was OK.

01:23I mean, just waiting for news.

01:24You kind of wonder how safe it is for these coaches to be going around these tiny, tiny

01:30roads like some of the tiny roundabouts they drive around and they end up kind of going

01:33up the middle of it.

01:35Yeah, it does worry me a little bit sometimes.

01:38It's a big shock because so many people died and are, I don't know, yeah, are injured.

01:50And so just an update, that crash is still under a major investigation.

01:54Yesterday it came out that early investigations are indicating that the bus was on the wrong

01:59side of the road.

02:00So how that came to be, the circumstances that led to that crash, will all form part

02:05of that investigation.

02:06And just an update on some of the survivors of that crash, two remain here in Townsville

02:10University Hospital in a critical condition and two others remain in hospital as well

02:14and they're in a stable condition.

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