Investigations are underway following a serious bus accident in Australia in which three people were killed and dozens injured

Sydney, July 1: Australian police are currently investigating the cause of a serious two-vehicle crash after three female bus passengers were killed in Queensland over the weekend.

At around 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, an off-road vehicle pulling a caravan and a bus crashed on the Bruce Highway near Gumlu, a coastal town in the north of the state, the Xinhua news agency reported.

“Three bus passengers died at the scene, including a woman in her 30s, a woman in her 20s and a 56-year-old woman from Townsville. Several other people were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries,” Queensland Police said in their latest statement on the accident.

Following the accident, the Bruce Highway was closed in both directions near Gumlu before reopening to traffic at midnight.

Queensland Police Superintendent Graeme Paine gave an update to local media outlet ABC News Breakfast on Monday morning, saying officers were working to confirm the identities of a woman in her 30s and another in her 20s, with several people still receiving treatment in hospital.

“One of them is in critical condition, so there are certainly concerns about the safety of that person,” Paine noted.

According to the head of operations, the incident occurred in a zone where the speed limit is 100 km/h. The bus was traveling north on the highway, the SUV was traveling south.

“The impact pushed the bus onto the railway line, which is why the railway line was closed at the time,” he added.

Since an incident of this kind is a “very complex” incident, the officer did not go into detail about the cause of the accident, but stressed the need for a “holistic investigation”.

“Our specialist accident investigators have conducted a forensic examination of the accident scene. They are currently interviewing additional witnesses and further evidence analysis is being conducted,” Paine said.

According to Queensland Ambulance reports, a total of 35 patients were examined at the crash site.

“Two patients with life-threatening injuries were flown by helicopter to Townsville Hospital, two patients with life-threatening injuries were flown by helicopter to Ayr Hospital and four patients in a stable condition were transported there by road. Unfortunately, three people died at the scene,” the local emergency agency said.

In addition, 24 other patients with minor injuries were identified who refused hospital admission.

Gumlu has a population of 124 and is a remote town in the Whitsunday region, 1,223 km north of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. The Bruce Highway is the main artery that connects numerous towns along the east coast of the state.

Whitsunday Mayor Ry Collins told ABC Radio that this section of the highway could be challenging as it “feels like a country road”.

“There’s no shoulder on the road. It’s a pretty open section, so I suppose vehicles coming from either direction could have seen each other, but something obviously happened here where one got into the path of the other,” Collins said.