Grafton bus crash
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The Grafton bus crash killed 21 people and injured 22 on the Pacific Highway on the North Coast of New South Wales near Grafton on 20 October 1989. A semi-trailer truck veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided with a passenger bus travelling the other way. It peeled back the side of the bus, spilling passengers onto the road.
The driver of the truck, who was among the dead, was found to have a high concentration of ephedrine in his blood, a stimulant similar in effect to the amphetamines.
This accident was one of several on the Pacific Highway involving buses over a short period. The Kempsey bus crash only two months later killed even more passengers, and less than five months before, another bus ran off the road, with no fatalities.
In response to these incidents came an effort in Australia, and particularly in New South Wales, to better regulate the heavy transport industry. This included banning "stay-awake" drugs, limiting uninterrupted driving time and mandating rest breaks. The design standards of long-distance buses and their safety equipment were also reviewed and a proposal made to upgrade the Pacific Highway to a divided road all the way between Sydney and Brisbane.
There is a memorial to the travellers involved in the Grafton Bus Disaster located on a closed-off section of the old Pacific Highway at Cowper, New South Wales.
