THE Bruce Highway, including stretches between Cairns, Innisfail and Ingham, has been named the deadliest road in Australia. Isn't it time for action? What can be done?

The RACQ is calling for an extra $100 million a year to be spent on safety measures to improve the national highway.

The Australian Road Assessment Program report described the Bruce Highway as the riskiest in Queensland.

The highway, which accounts for one in six deaths on the national highway network, was given a medium-high or high-risk rating along most of its length in the report.

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It is the third report in the past three months highly critical of the state and safety of the main link between Cairns and southern centres, including separate assessments by the RACQ and the Cairns Business Leaders Alliance.

The report follows the RACQ’s annual road survey in December 2011 and the alliance’s highway report card in late
October.

RACQ public policy executive manager Michael Roth said the latest report "cemented the Bruce Highway’s notorious reputation".

The report said the road accounted for two-thirds of the top-15 most dangerous sections of national highway in the state.

Mr Roth said an alarming 37 per cent of Queensland’s national highways had a high-risk rating.

"The analysis found that the Bruce Highway experienced the highest level of road trauma on Queensland’s national network, accounting for 50 per cent of casualty crashes and 61 per cent of deaths between 2005 and 2009," he said.

"The Bruce Highway makes up about one-third of the national network in Queensland. Significant investment is required for infrastructure improvements to address safety deficiencies and to cater for increasing traffic demand on this major route for motorists and freight," Mr Roth said.

"Improvements such as more overtaking lanes, safer intersections, guard rails, audio tactile line markings, wider lanes and shoulders, and the removal of roadside objects would go a long way towards reducing the road toll.

"More Federal Government funding channelled into the upgrade and maintenance of our roads over the next 10 years would significantly reduce the road toll. The Government needs to spend an additional billion dollars over 10 years, $100 million a year, solely on safety measures."

Cairns Business Leaders Alliance spokesman Brett Moller said the new report endorsed his group’s view that the highway was "a national disgrace".

Mr Moller said that taxpayers, residents, businesses and community wanted to see road works, not more studies, reports and future planning strategies.

Queensland Trucking Association chief executive Peter Garske said the state of the highway was costing his members extra wages, fuel and vehicle maintenance, because of delays, crashes and other incidents.

"The state of the Bruce Highway is the result of many decades of neglect," he said.

Mr Garske said the demands of the mining and agricultural sectors was only going to put more pressure on the highway.

Main Roads Minister Craig Wallace said the state’s plan, released last month, set out a vision for a four-lane Bruce Highway from Gympie to Cairns.

"It identifies 110 priority projects, including 340km of highway duplication, 50 new overtaking lanes, intersection upgrades, bridge replacements and 10 proposed ring roads, bypasses and deviations," he said.

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