“The challenge is this is the national highway … for many of our southern listeners, if you are to drive the road it doesn’t feel like a highway, it feels like a country road,” Collins told ABC radio.
“There’s no shoulders on the road, it is a fairly open section so I’d imagine the vehicles coming either way would have been able to see each other but there’s obviously been something happened here where one’s veered into the other’s lane.”
Greyhound Australia said in a statement the company 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,” they said.
The Bruce Highway has since reopened.
Queensland Police Mackay district Superintendent Graeme Paine said the 4WD towing the caravan was travelling south on the Bruce Highway at the time of the collision, while the bus was travelling north.
Given it was a 100km/h zone, that resulted in a “significant impact”, he said.
The crash left the Townsville-bound Greyhound bus resting on train tracks, which ran parallel to the highway.
Images on social media show the bus on the rail tracks (left of picture).Credit: Facebook
“A crash like this is very, very confronting, and the first responders and the community members on scene at the time have done a very significant job in trying to help those who are injured and safeguard the scene and try and assist those who need medical attention,” Paine said.
Emergency services were called to the scene after reports the vehicles had collided.Credit: Queensland Ambulance
The crash comes six months after 36 people had to evacuate a Greyhound bus on Christmas Day last year, about 120 kilometres further north along the Bruce Highway.
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