[BUZ81]

THERE are tourist timebombs on our roads. A State Government audit of cut-price rental campervans has found almost 95 per cent of vehicles are not safe to drive.

Almost the entire fleet from the biggest and most high-profile company, Wicked Campers, has been ordered off the road. Random checks will be carried out on other companies as a matter of urgency.

Queensland's tourism industry is already under scrutiny after the deaths of three foreign tourists in four-wheel-drive accidents on Fraser Island in the past year.

One of the most popular forms of travel for young backpackers since 2005 has been cheap campervans. They cost $40 to $70 a day.

But the government crackdown on safety could put a clamp on that.

Acting Premier Paul Lucas revealed Brisbane-based Wicked – which has campervans for hire throughout Australia and New Zealand – had decommissioned 77 of its 86 vehicles in Queensland when asked to submit the entire fleet for safety tests. The company then submitted the remaining nine of its vans for road safety tests, and transport officials were forced to take five of those off the road.

"What this means is that out of a fleet of 86 vehicles, only four of them were safe to be on our roads," Mr Lucas told The Sunday Mail.

"Quite frankly, that is frightening, and we have written to other state governments to alert them to the problem. . .

"We have seen the incidents involving 4WDs on Fraser Island, and the Government has taken measures there to try and protect visitors to our state."

A Welsh tourist, Tim Wallsgrove, and his girlfriend claimed they were lucky to survive an accident in Outback Queensland last year when their Wicked van overturned. They blamed the vehicle's bald tyres for preventing it from stopping.

Mr Wallsgrove set up a weblog under the name Wicked Campers Rent Out Death Traps, inviting others to warn tourists of the dangers in hiring the vehicles.

The State Government carried out a random crackdown on Wicked vehicles in north Queensland in August and October. The safety inspections in Cairns resulted in 35 vans being deregistered.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said the experience in Cairns alerted inspectors to investigate the company on a statewide basis.

"Officers had ordered (the remaining) 51 vehicles to be inspected last month, however 42 were withdrawn from hire and deregistered by Wicked Campers before they could be given a thorough mechanical going-over," Ms Nolan said.

"We also ordered a number of Wicked campervans to be repaired as a result of the crackdown."

A further five were ordered off the road.

Ms Nolan said mechanical faults identified in those five included:

• • Structural rust.
• • Defective seating.
• • Oil leaks.
• • Steering components.
• • Severe accident damage.

"It is important to note that these vehicles were the ones the company considered worthy of submitting for a roadworthy," she said.

A Wicked spokesman said the company had voluntarily deregistered "a number of vehicles" and would do "everything we can to rectify the defects".

He said Wicked had plans over the next 12 months to replace 500 campervans in its national fleet, phasing out all pre-2004 models.

It's good to know Queensland Transport has finally found out what we all knew already. 5 out of 86 vans is pretty poor.