00:00It's the gateway to regional Queensland, stretching 1,700km from Brisbane to Cairns.
00:10But many say the Bruce Highway is a death trap.
00:13It's a lethal road.
00:16Motorists are between three and five times more likely to die on the Bruce than other
00:21national highways.
00:23Betty Stewart's husband, Daniel, was one of them.
00:27The truck driver was killed in a triple fatal at Meribah earlier this year.
00:32She's dreading her first Christmas without him.
00:35It was the thing that he loved the most, was giving all of us presents and Secret Santas
00:43and watching the kids get their presents.
00:47He's not going to be there for that.
00:52Last month, another fatal crash and truck explosion at Beroran, south of Gladstone,
00:57cut the highway for five days.
01:00It's put the dire state of the Bruce back firmly in the spotlight.
01:05The swathes of the road are basically high speed, single undivided lanes where the road
01:14is just unforgiving to motorists who make mistakes.
01:18Childers to Gingin, Serena to Prosserpine and Townsville to Cairns are considered the
01:23deadliest stretches, riddled with potholes, damaged bitumen and narrow bridge crossings.
01:31I'm here at Gingin, the worst stretch of the highway for serious and fatal crashes.
01:37It's clear motorists are fed up with the conditions and are calling for major upgrades to be made
01:43a priority.
01:46Bundaberg based truck driver, Trudy Trussell, is one of them.
01:51The quality of the road for the amount of traffic is substandard compared to the rest
01:57of the highways in Australia that I've been on.
02:01It's quite a disgrace.
02:04One hundred and forty nine people died between 2018 and 2022.
02:10More than half of those deaths were caused by head on collisions.
02:14There's a link there between the quality of the road, the safety of that road and the
02:18crashes that occur on that road.
02:20Colin Dwyer is on a mission to fix the brutes.
02:24The Economist recently teamed up with retired Dr Tracey Cheffins to travel the highway documenting
02:31black spots.
02:32We would like to see a prioritisation of those areas.
02:38It's a mission Betty Stewart is firmly behind as she tries to contemplate life without her
02:44beloved husband.
02:46The road's dangerous in certain areas.
02:48There's a lot of people that have been killed on that road.
02:51You know, if they don't get addressed, more people are going to die.
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