Queensland police are pleading with drivers to take better care on the roads after another spate of accidents on the state's roads claimed five lives over three days.
"Some people think that the irrefutable laws of physics don't apply to them - but they do apply... we see carnage and tragedy which is avoidable," Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating told reporters on Sunday.
Three men were killed instantly when their car slammed into a number of large gum trees near Bundaberg in southeastern Queensland.
The bodies of the three men, aged 22 and 25 from Gin Gin and 33 from Bundaberg, were found inside the mangled wreckage of their car at Bucca after the accident about 7pm on Saturday night.
Seasoned crash investigator Sergeant Steve Webb said the driver lost control of the car as he tried to negotiate a bend, crashing into the trees, killing all three instantly.
"This is such a bloody waste of life, it really is - and how do we get it through to people."
He begged drivers to think of their loved ones before taking risks.
A 14-year-old boy died in Brisbane's Lady Cilento Hospital on Sunday, two days after he crashed his motorbike into a ute at Moore Park near Bundaberg. And a motorcyclist died on Friday at Hatton Vale, west of Brisbane.
Their deaths have taken Queensland's 2016 road toll to 243, compared with 235 for last year.
"With 10 days left in December, we've already surpassed the road toll of the last two Decembers - 13 in 2014 and 15 but 18 so far this December," Mr Keating told reporters in Brisbane.
"Queenslanders can do better and must do better," he said.
The toll may worsen with at least two people fighting for their lives after separate accidents overnight.
A pedestrian has life-threatening injuries after being hit by a car north of Townsville late on Saturday night, while a driver is in a critical condition after his ute overturned at Home Hill early on Sunday morning.
Queensland Police this weekend conducted a statewide operation to try to address the road toll, with senior officers disappointed in driver behaviour.
The results of Operation Stopper included:
* 15,037 random breath tests with 11 drivers returning a positive result and one testing positive to a roadside drug test
* 86 speeding offences - with four of those between 20 and 30 kilometres over the speed limit
* 20 people caught not wearing their seatbelts
* and eight using their mobile phones behind the wheel.
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