Federal Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker has welcomed the opening of the new $614 million Frederickton to Eungai section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade, which will bypass the site where the Clybucca Bus Crash claimed 35 lives.
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Mr Hartsuyker today joined Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester and rescuers involved in the 1989 head-on bus tragedy, which remains Australia’s worst ever road accident.
“This is a very important day in the lives of so many people on the Mid North Coast, and around the nation, who were touched by the horror of the morning of December 22 in 1989,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
“Completing this stretch of the Pacific Highway Upgrade is also symbolic, because the scale and horror of the Clybucca bus crash was the impetus for the Pacific Highway duplication from Hexham to the Queensland border.
“There are emergency service workers, neighbours who lived near the crash site, support workers, doctors, nurses and counsellors who will never forget that event, and for some probably think of it every day.
“I recently had the honour of presenting Port Macquarie SES volunteer Shane Hughes with an award for his service to the organisation and he recounted to me his experience at the Clybucca bus accident site that day in 1989.
“To this day, Shane still returns every year on the anniversary of the accident to lay flowers at the crash site at Clybucca Flat.
“This opening of a four-lane carriageway will dramatically improve safety on the Pacific Highway, by removing that notorious Clybucca Flat stretch of road from the highway network and take heavy vehicles away from local roads,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
Mr Hartsuyker was also contacted by Salvation Army Lieutenant Colonel Don Woodland, who administered to the dying and comforted rescuers and relatives on the day of the crash, and counselled those who were impacted for weeks afterward.
“His reflections of that tragic day, which he has kindly passed onto me, are a reminder of the shock and horror all Australians woke up to on the news of the Clybucca bus accident,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
The new section of highway stretches from the Kempsey bypass in the south and Eungai Rail to the north, bypassing the areas of Clybucca and Bellimbopinni.
The opening of Frederickton to Eungai section of the highway upgrade means two thirds of the duplicated highway is now open to traffic.
