The issue of a national safety standard for tourist coaches is again being raised following the deadly bus crash north of Bowen in Queensland, which claimed the lives of three people.

The Queensland Police Forensic Crash Unit continues to investigate the cause of a tourist coach crash at Gumlu, north of Bowen on Sunday that killed three people and injure dozens more, some seriously.

Police said initial investigations indicate that just after 11am, a caravan and bus collided on the Bruce Highway. The Greyhound bus carrying 33 people collided with a 4WD towing a caravan travelling in the opposite direction near Gumlu, in the Whitsundays region in a 100km/h zone on the Bruce Highway.

Three passengers on the bus died at the scene, including a woman in her 30s, a woman in her 20s and a 56-year-old Townsville woman. Multiple other people were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries.

The highway reopened both lanes to traffic just after 12am on July 1.

“We haven’t determined any factors that have contributed to the crash at this stage, but certainly a crash of this nature, involving this many people is a very significant, very tragic incident for us,” Queensland Police Superintendent Graeme Paine said.

Greyhound Australia said in a statement it was “heartbroken” three passengers aboard the Brisbane to Townsville service had died.

“This is a tragic incident. Our deepest sympathies go out to those involved and their families and friends,” the statement said.

Greyhound has 180 stops in Australia and on its website describes safety as ‘second to none’.

It’s happened before

There are a reported 1 billion individual journeys made by bus every year in Australia (including tourist coach travel) and the chances of being in an accident is one in eight hundred million.

But recent crashes, including the NSW Hunter Valley coach rollover that killed 10 in June last year, have prompted calls for more change.

Brett Button, the driver behind the wheel of a wedding bus when it crashed in Greta near the Hunter Valley killing 10 people and injuring 25 more, will be sentenced in September.

Button, 59, appeared before Newcastle District Court last month after formally pleading guilty in May to 19 charges, including dangerous driving occasioning death as well as grievous bodily harm.

The court was told the sentence proceedings were expected to take three days before Judge Roy Ellis beginning on Monday, September 9, with as many as 35 victim impact statements to be read out in court.

Police alleged at the time Button “lost control” of the wedding bus as it entered overturned on Wine Country Drive, near the Hunter Expressway off-ramp at Greta.

Police said the vehicle was taking the wedding-goers to Singleton after attending a ceremony at Wadin Estate, in the tourist hot-spot of Lovedale, earlier that day.

It was the wedding of road safety expert John Gaffney’s son. In recalling the event, Gaffney told Australian Bus & Coach (ABC) that he remembered noticing the weather conditions created a perfect combination for dangerous driving.

“I’d mentioned it to people at the wedding that everything was conducive for a classic crash night that I have discussed in my published research,” Gaffney told ABC.

“It was a beautiful sunny day, warm for a winter’s day, as a large temperature drop (near zero degrees Celsius) occurring through a lack of cloud cover meant moisture fell to the ground. This, when combined with cold tyres, cold brakes and darkness, catches many drivers out.”

Sadly, his prediction came true, but he has since advocated for change in the bus and coach industry.

“I started calling for change on my own by sending letters to federal and state ministers,” Gaffney told ABC. “My son was talking to Adam at one of the funerals and Adam said there needs to be an investigation into the safety side of buses, so my son got Adam in contact with me, with Alex also joining us to point out the current roadblocks preventing safety reform from occurring.”

Gaffney contacted Travel Weekly and said it was important to “highlight this forgotten mode in terms of vehicle standards and safety systems”.

“Since the crash I have made several submissions to the NSW and Federal Government working behind the scenes and we are beginning to see progress,” he said. Read his report, co-authored with Dr Tony Ockwell, here.

A long-distance coach equipped with seatbelts.

Safety calls continue to follow tragedies

Coaches are equipped with safety belts and are compelled by law to wear them but each individual state and territory government must enforce the law.

Gaffney is among a group who have called for further change, including presenting a plan to the Bus Industry Confederation (BIC). In late August, they also presented the same points to assistant federal transport minister Carol Brown to push politicians to implement changed laws.

The seven-point plan includes an intensive education program on seat belt wearing alongside improved selection and training processes for recruiting and retaining bus drivers that includes psychometric testing and compulsory real-time driver monitoring systems.

Gaffney also called for a review of road design standards and speed limits while also reshaping bus roll-over standards, including bus window, emergency access and egress rules.

“Research suggests many buses crash on curved sections of roads where there’s guard rails everywhere,” Gaffney says. “Do buses meet design standards for if they fall on the sharp edge of a guard rail, particularly at the speeds at which buses travel?”

The plan also calls for coaches to be equipped with the onboard and real-time safety equipment, including tyre pressure monitoring systems, automatic emergency braking, vehicle rollover warning systems to mirror regulations in both Europe and the US, ‘black box’ data loggers and intelligent speed assist.

“We need to work out who is responsible for regulating bus safety, as buses carry millions of Australians every day, so the industry deserves its own specialised regulator as a bus is quite different to a normal heavy vehicle in its design, usage, payload and safety requirements.” Gaffney told ABC.

Current electronic stability control and mandatory braking standards aren’t required to be fitted into new models until November 1 this year and in all vehicles from November 1 next year.

Professor emeritus of road safety at the University of NSW and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine Raphael Grzebieta told ABC after the Greta crash that better bus safety glazing should also be introduced.

There are calls to improve bus windows to help protect occupants.

“Bus safety glazing can be used to protect occupants. Wearing seat belts isn’t solely enough – you also have to have additional safety glazing, and there should be a standard introduced for this technology onboard all Australian buses and coaches.”

Commercial passenger vehicle safety regulator Safe Transport Victoria introduced new reforms this year that require operators to establish, maintain and comply with management systems to safely manage operations, including maintenance and risk management of bus and coach fleets.

The NSW Government instructed its recently formed Bus Industry Taskforce to investigate safety concerns.

Tragic history of bus crashes

The Kempsey crash in 1989.

Exford: A Victorian truck driver pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving after he crashed into a school bus, tipping it on its side and seriously injuring several children in May 16, 2023. Jamie Gleeson, 50, will face trial on seven counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury following the crash involving an Exford Primary School bus carrying 45 children.

Kempsey: On 22 December 1989 two full tourist coaches, each travelling at 100km/h, collided head-on on the Pacific Highway at Clybucca Flat, 12 kilometres north of Kempsey, NSW. The collision killed 35, including both drivers, and 41 were seriously injured. It remains the deadliest bus crash in Australian history.

Kempsey bush crash 1989. Image: Facebook

Grafton: On October 20, 1989, just a month before the Kempsey crash, a semi-trailer veered into oncoming traffic and hist a passenger bus near Grafton, killing 21 people and injuring 22 others. Following the tragedies, the coroner who presided over both inquiries, recommended that the highway be upgraded to a four-lane dual carriageway between Hexham and Queensland.

Brisbane: In 1979 four people, including two high school students, were killed when a bus rolled off a cliff 60km south of Brisbane.

Tumut Ponds Dam: In 1973, 18 dies and 21 were injured after a tour bus carrying Adelaide pensioners plunged into the Tumut Ponds Dam in the Snowy Mountains.