Andy Rigby has just celebrated his birthday with a road trip he and his wife Callie have lacked the confidence to take for more than four years.
The Cairns couple has avoided several major roads since a bus swerved and collided head-on with their ute on a highway bypass in June 2022.
Mrs Rigby, whose mother and father were killed in a car crash when she was a baby, recalled looking up from her phone in the passenger seat to see the bus coming.
"Next minute, bang — I actually thought I was going to die."
The bus driver, who had to be freed from the wreckage, suffered a severe leg injury.
"The forensic police said, 'You were so lucky to survive that crash,'" Mr Rigby said.
The Rigbys spent a week in hospital with minor injuries but the mental scars have lasted far longer.
"I used to get the driver of the bus's face coming up in front of me," Mr Rigby said.
"That went on for probably three or four months … but I'm still defensively driving, going to the left of the lane as far as possible.
"I don't do it on purpose, it just happens; instinct, I suppose."
Mr Rigby said the "severe accident" dramatically changed his life.
Despite being avid wildlife and landscape photographers, the couple has felt unable to visit their much-loved Atherton Tablelands, an hour's drive west of Cairns.
But on the weekend, that changed for Mr Rigby's birthday celebrations.
"You come to a stage where you think life is short," Mr Rigby said.
The 'most dreaded' job in policing
The number of deaths on Queensland roads is up 10 per cent on the same time last year.
The state government's most recent data shows 194 deaths have occurred in 179 crashes from January 1 until August 9, up from 176 fatalities in the same period last year.
The numbers are unacceptable, said Sergeant Scott Hayes, who recalls every road death he has responded to in 30 years of policing.
"I can point out every fatal accident I've ever been to along that stretch of the [Bruce] Highway," the officer-in-charge of the Innisfail highway patrol said.
"I can remember knocking on people's doors and telling them a loved one isn't going to be coming home because someone made a stupid decision or did something stupid on the road."
The North Coast region — from Wide Bay to Moreton Bay — has again recorded the highest number of road deaths of any region in Queensland in the year to date with almost 50 fatalities.
On Friday night, a woman died after the ute she was a passenger in collided with a tree at Tiaro, south of Maryborough.
In Far North Queensland, 17 people have died on the roads so far this year — a 27 per cent increase on the average year-to-date figures for the past four years.
Last week, an allegedly stolen ute crashed into two cars on the same Smithfield Bypass where the Rigbys' ute was struck in 2022.
Savannah Spence Paige, 25, died at the scene.
Mr Rigby said the tragedy brought "everything" back.
"We feel so sorry for that lady," he said.
Tactician plots the response
In Far North Queensland, a dedicated road safety tactician looks at weekly data on crashes and traffic infringements, devising a targeted plan for the region's highway patrol crews.
This year's spike in road trauma has not been linked to a particular cause or demographic.
"Unfortunately, every week it's a bit different, so targeting one particular area of concern is a bit difficult because it seems to change weekly," Sergeant Hayes said.
Sergeant Hayes said police generally targeted the "fatal five" — speeding, drink and drug driving, failure to wear a seatbelt, fatigue, and inattention.
But he said officers "want to get into people's minds", not just issue fines.
"We want them to drive away having learnt that potentially their driving behaviour could be something that causes a fatal or serious crash down the road," he said.
Sergeant Hayes said there had been some general improvements to road safety in recent years, including a reduction in the number of motorists using phones at the wheel, more integrated tech in cars, and better use of hazard lights at roadworks.
"There are some steps forward but at the end of the day, all these crashes have one thing in common and that's someone sitting behind a steering wheel operating the vehicle," he said.
"Until some of those behaviours change, we're going to unfortunately keep seeing these crashes."
