A woman who died after a bus rollover on a major state highway was a on a trip of a lifetime, Premier David Crisafulli said after promising urgent infrastructure upgrades.

The horror bus rollover left one woman dead and 17 others with serious injuries.

The incident took place on the Bruce Highway near Gumlu on Thursday afternoon on the same stretch of road where a similar collision involving a bus took the lives of three people in 2024.

One person has died after a bus flipped on Bruce Highway near Gumlu. Picture: Berta Flerder
Queensland Police Superintendent Dean Cavanagh said the 28 passengers on the bus were travelling from Cairns to Airlie Beach, and were mostly foreign nationals.

“All of those passengers were tourists, the majority were from overseas,” he told reporters.

David Crisafulli said he could “only imagine” what the families of the victims were thinking and feeling.

He said the woman who died was on a “trip of a lifetime” when the tragedy unfolded.

“Someone in the prime of their life, on the trip of a lifetime, in another country, has lost their life,” he told ABC News.

“I think today people want me to acknowledge what is an incredible tragedy, and we should pause and reflect on that.”

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Mr Crisafulli said it was time to “improve” the infrastructure of the Bruce Highway.

“It really is tragic. You’ve got young people, in many cases living out their dream in a foreign country, and to have something like this happen … it’s something that will be felt for a long, long time to come,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“It’s obviously early days and our focus has to be on the loss of life. We’ve got several people clinging to life. Without speaking specifically about the incident, I’ve long been on the record (for) the need to improve that Bruce Highway.

“It’s such an important road for our state, for our nation, and it’s not up to scratch, and we have to do everything we can to continue to invest in it so we can take it to the next level.”

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has vowed to do everything he can to make sure the Bruce Highway is taken ‘to the next level’. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass
Superintendent Cavanagh said the majority of people on the bus experienced “varying degrees of injuries”.

“We had 29 people on the bus at the time, 28 passengers and one Mackay man who was 70 years old who was the driver at the time,” Superintendent Cavanagh said.

“As a result of that crash, the majority of people had varying degrees of injuries. Two were quite severe, and they were flown to Townsville hospital immediately. The others were transported via road to Bowen and to Ayr hospital for treatment.”

Superintendent Cavanagh said there had been no change to the severity of any injuries overnight.

Emergency crews converged on the scene, which Queensland Police Inspector Dean Cavanagh called ‘complex’. Picture Berta Flerder
He also said the investigation was in its infancy and he was unable to give an indication of the cause at this early stage.

“We will not speculate on cause. I understand there will be a lot of questions about cause, but at this stage there won’t be any speculation … when we have further information that we can share, we certainly will,” he said.

He credited the relative lack of casualties to the efforts of emergency response teams.

“The joint response and the unity and teamwork that we saw, although we tragically lost a life, I believe that effort that we saw absolutely went into saving many more.”

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said three passengers received life-threatening injuries, and nine passengers had escaped injury.

The Bruce Highway connects Cairns and other cities in Far North Queensland to the southern coastal regions of the Sunshine State. Picture: Google
Coach operator Flixbus said it was “deeply saddened” that one of its coaches had been involved in the accident.

“We are heartbroken to learn one passenger has since passed away in hospital. Our thoughts are with their family, friends and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Flixbus said in a statement.

The incident comes as a major blow for the company, which has only been operating in Australia for a relatively short period of time.

Flixbus was founded in Germany in 2011 as a budget cross-country public transport option and eventually gained enough popularity to expand into the Aussie market in November last year.

Services run up and down the east coast between Cairns and Melbourne.

Two years ago, a Greyhound bus crashed on the same stretch of the Bruce Highway near Gumlu, killing three women when the bus driver drifted into the southbound lane and struck the side of an oncoming caravan.

At trial, he was found not guilty of dangerous driving causing death and grievous bodily harm.

Investigations into Thursday’s incident are ongoing.