Qld's road toll reaches 100 deaths after horror weekend

Club spokesperson Lauren Ritchie said there had been a significant spike in road deaths this year, with 21 more lives lost compared to the same time last year.

“In 2020, we were concerned during COVID that we were the only State in the country to record an increase in our road toll and thought that was a big enough wake-up call for Queenslanders, but sadly it seems that hasn’t been the case,” Ms Ritchie said.

“We’re really in dire straits with the state of our road toll and desperately need everyone on the road to work together to prevent more lives being lost.

“As police say, to have 100 people killed this early in the year is the worst we’ve seen in at least a decade, and it’s very concerning to think of where we’ll end up at the end of the year if we continue at this rate.

“Since Friday, we’ve lost a mother of five, an elderly cyclist, a 67 year old man from Emerald and a 46 year old woman on the Darling Downs – these are real people, who didn’t make it home to their families.”

Ms Ritchie said this week was National Road Safety Week and drivers were being urged to make a commitment to drive safely. 

“We know majority of serious and fatal crashes are due to some element of human error, so the keys to saving our lives, and those of others, are in our hands – we need to drive to survive,” she said.

“We don’t know how many more times we can say it – please don’t speed, please don’t be distracted behind the wheel, don’t drive if you’re tired or have been drinking, and please wear a seatbelt.

“Whether you’re in a vehicle, on a motorbike, a push bike or walking, please think about what you’re doing on the roads, pay attention, don’t be in a rush and have some courtesy and hopefully we can get through this year together alive – because we don’t just want to have fewer people killed – we want the road toll to be zero.”