With the annual 'grey nomad' migration in full swing, and many holiday travellers heading north to escape the chilly southern states, caravan congestion and the risk of bingles along major thoroughfares is increasing.
Queensland's busy Bruce Highway is again in the spotlight as the scene of dramatic caravan accidents, with two roll-overs reported on the Clayton's Towing Facebook page in recent weeks.
One multi-vehicle accident, along the Bruce Highway near Saint Lawrence, resulted in a Mitsubishi Triton ute and a Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series ute towing a large tandem-axle caravan, both spearing off the road and into a muddy ditch.
Clayton's Towing said the accident occurred while both drivers of the Triton ute and the towing rig were attempting overtaking manouevres along the notorious stretch of bitumen.
"A Triton went to overtake a Cruiser and caravan in front of it, when the Cruiser and caravan went to overtake a slower moving truck in front of it," the towing company said.
The crashed vehicles were recovered by Clayton's Towing's Mackay depot, using a "pozi and winch, due to being well off the road".
Another roll-over in June of a Nissan 4WD towing a caravan occurred along the Bruce Highway, south of Rockhampton.
Clayton's said there were no major injuries in either caravan-related incident, although the upturned 'van near Rockhampton disintegrated and was left virtually unrecognisable.
Caravan roll-overs are a regular occurrence on Queensland's Bruce Highway, with Clayton's Towing owner Mike Clayton previously telling the ABC that his tow truck business "was responding to caravan accidents every few days".
"We do see a fair few caravan accidents, and they cause absolute mayhem because they smash into a thousand pieces," he said. "They cause highway blockages, they just totally destroy themselves.
"They're not always new to it — we've had experienced caravanners or people who have driven B-doubles their whole life, then jumped in a caravan and rolled over."