When first responders arrived at the scene of one of Australia’s worst road accidents, they were met with an eerie silence.
The quiet, still morning of October 24, 1994, was broken only by the soft moaning of those injured in the serious bus crash north of Brisbane.
Many onboard were war widows on an outing from the regional city of Maryborough to the Logan shopping centre, south of Brisbane.
Twelve people died, shattering innumerable others in their small, tight-knit hometown in Queensland’s Wide Bay region.
The bus was carrying people, including many widows, from the regional city of Maryborough. (Supplied: QFES)
It has been 30 years since the devastating crash, but the trauma for survivors and families of those killed lingers like it was yesterday.
Ambulance crews responding to the emergency call arrived to find a Wide Bay Tours coach down a 10-metre embankment on the side of the Gateway Motorway in the northern Brisbane suburb of Boondall.
As the officers triaged the 50 passengers lying within and strewn alongside the wreckage, the enormity of the tragedy became clear.
Paramedics preparing to remove a body from the scene. (Supplied: QFES)
A report from the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) site commander described how emergency services swiftly created a perimeter around the crash site, including a helicopter landing zone.
Arriving media were well controlled, the report said, with the only problem caused by a bystander “taking amateur video footage … an expected trend emerging in America”.
This was back before smartphones and social media, so it took hours for the news to filter back to Maryborough.
Paramedics taking a patient away from the scene. (Supplied: QFES)
Chris Foley was an accountant in the town at the time, later serving a nine-year stint as the state MP for Maryborough before becoming a pastor in a local community church.
“The whole community was in disbelief,” he said.
“It probably took a while for the realisation to dawn as to just what had happened.”
Firefighters entered the bus to retrieve bodies. (Supplied: QFES)
A coronial inquest later found welding on the lower right steering control rod had broken, causing the southbound bus to swerve violently to the right and roll over the median strip into the embankment on the other side of the road.
“One minute you’re cruising along to a nice day out and the next minute disaster strikes,” Mr Foley said.
“There is no easy answer to those sorts of things … the grief doesn’t stay in a straight line, it just continues to wobble on and affect so many people.
“Almost everyone in our community knows somebody who was affected by that particular accident, so it just continues to simmer away and the grief simmers away in the background.”
30 years on
Around 200 people gathered for a quiet, solemn service at Maryborough City Hall this morning to remember those lost in the crash.
One of those who attended this morning’s service was Maryborough resident Tania Redmond, who choked back tears while remembering her grandmother, Thelma Short, who died in the crash.
Loved ones gathered at Maryborough City Hall for a memorial service. (ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram)
“It was probably the worst day of my life … I remember every part of that day and it was just horrific,” Ms Redmond said.
“I have wonderful memories of growing up, spending Christmases at her house.
“She was just the most amazing grandmother … this time every year is difficult.”
Ian Short, Tania Redmond, Barry Short and Wendy Simpson (in order) attended the memorial service in memory of their grandmother. (ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram)
Martin Kelly was one of the ambulance officers first on the scene.
Now QAS senior operations supervisor for the North Coast and Wide Bay region, Mr Kelly said he could remember the crash “like yesterday”.
“People think these scenes are sometimes very chaotic, but it was very quiet,” he said.
First responder Martin Kelly also attended the 30th memorial service for the Boondall bus crash. (ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram)
Among the memories seared in Mr Kelly’s mind are confirming the passing of a 12-year-old boy who went on the shopping trip with his grandmother.
“This is my 46th year as a paramedic … it’s one of those jobs that will never, ever, ever go out of my mind,” he said.
Around 200 people attended the service. (ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram)
The strong turnout to the service was a testament to the tragic, galvanising impact of the crash on the local community, Mr Kelly said.
“It’s very much a part of the Maryborough community and what makes it … and unfortunately, some of these events do tighten up our community to support each other,” he said.
Fight to improve bus safety continues
The 1994 crash hastened the move to retrofit seatbelts on older coaches.
While a voluntary code of practice for fitting seat belts on new buses was introduced nationally just months before the crash, there was no policy in place for existing buses.
Four years before the Boondall crash, a bus plunged down a slope at Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland, killing 11 people.
A government analysis of both crashes found the impact would have been lessened if the buses were fitted with seatbelts.
Firefighters had to head into the bus to retrieve some of the bodies after the 1994 Boondall crash. (Supplied: QFES)
The Boondall crash was one of a series of fatal bus crashes that led to strong consumer demand for seat belts on coaches used for charters and excursions, and a large industry developed for retrofitting fitting seatbelts to older buses.
However, four decades later, the movement to improve bus safety continues, with last year’s Hunter Valley bus crash again shining a spotlight on bus and coach seatbelt safety.
In September, the Australasian College of Road Safety pointed out a dangerous loophole in the current design requirements whereby seatbelts are not compulsory in school buses.
The ACRS says Queensland lags behind other states in mandating and retrofitting seatbelts on school buses.
Wide Bay Tours, now trading as Wide Bay Transit, declined to provide a statement due to the sensitive nature of the crash.
