ANOTHER horror weekend on the Bruce Highway has prompted calls for an investigation into the Far North's main road by state and federal authorities.

Nine people have died in crashes on the highway in the past year.

Far Northern reports show five people were killed in the previous year – when the stretch of road between Cairns and Innisfail was rated one of the most dangerous in Australia.

Concerned politicians described the highway as a "goat track" yesterday.

Cairns MP Desley Boyle called for a joint state and federal inquiry into the condition of the road, its design and the alarming number of fatalities and serious crashes between Cairns and Cardwell.

"We need a general investigation to see what needs to be done … and quickly," Ms Boyle told The Cairns Post.

"What we have is a very high, and disastrous, road toll." A Cairns man, 69, and woman, 72, are the latest to lose their lives on the highway after a head-on collision at Wrights Creek near Edmonton on Sunday

The crash also left a woman, 38, in a critical condition in Cairns Base Hospital and a five-year-old girl in a serious but stable condition. A woman and two other children were stable.

Five days earlier, a heavily pregnant woman died near Innisfail after a three-car crash at a small road intersecting the highway.

The Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter said there was an urgent need for converging lanes and for a four-lane divided road from Cairns to Gordonvale.

"A $370 million commitment over five years would probably do it (four-lane highway) … the Feds have been spending that kind of money down south," Mr Katter said.

Ms Boyle wants experts ranging from police and ambulance officers to road designers to be part of all-encompassing inquiry into both road conditions and driver error on the highway .

The Member for Leichhardt Jim Turnour said record amounts of funding had been channelled into the Far North’s main arterial and more works were on the way, but the onus also fell on motorists to drive to conditions.

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