Queensland road safety researchers are working to stop people driving dangerously on the state's beaches to end the "high rate of serious injury and fatal crashes".
At least six rollovers have occurred along the Cooloola Coast, north of Brisbane, since the start of the year, including an incident where four teens were hospitalised.
Research associate Levi Anderson, from the University of the Sunshine Coast Road Safety Research Collaboration, said the culture of dangerous beach-driving needed to be urgently addressed to avoid meaningless deaths.
"There's so many people on the beach, it's a matter of when, not if, something goes wrong," he said.
Mr Anderson said he was particularly concerned about recreational camp sites where the speed limit dropped from 80 to 50 kilometres per hour.
"In those places we've got young kids running directly from their camp site to the water's edge, and a lot of these young kids don't have peripheral vision, so they can't see cars coming from the side," he said.
Police and Queensland Park and Wildlife Service rangers issued more than 2,000 fines for vehicle-related offences on the Cooloola Coast in the 12 months to November.
Mr Anderson said researchers were working to determine what caused the high number of offences being committed on south-east Queensland beaches.
"We have a serious over representation of drunk driving on the beach, as well as speeding," he said.
'It's like a switch'
The research is part of a collaboration between the university and the state government's Motor Accident Insurance Commission, in conjunction with authorities.
Mr Anderson said preliminary results showed many drivers believed they were less likely to be caught breaking the law on the beach than they were on the road.
"We've found there's a number of drivers that wouldn't normally offend on the roads, but once their tyres hit the sand, it's like a switch," he said.
Camper Lincoln Blake regularly visits the driving beaches along the Cooloola Coast.
He said hoon-driving was sometimes encouraged among younger demographics.
"For the younger people, it is fun seeing people do donuts every now and then, but most of the time people are pretty good," Mr Blake said.
"When you see the rangers driving around you do tend to slow down, and kind of abide by the rules."
High visibility patrols helping
Dozens of additional police officers were called to help patrol Queensland's driving beaches over the holiday period to reduce accidents and help keep people safe.
Tin Can Bay officer in charge Sergeant Mick Bazzo said high visibility measures — including patrols and random breath and drug tests — reduced problematic driving behaviour.
"We are starting to eliminate the hooning behaviour that we saw in years gone by where they treated the beaches as a free-for-all," Sergeant Bazzo said.
"We've come back with very minimal drunk drivers."
He said more than 20,000 vehicles were estimated to visit the Cooloola Coast across the school holiday period from December to the end of January.
"Unfortunately, we're still getting some people that just don't understand that it is a gazetted road, and all road rules apply," Sergeant Bazzo said.
What's next?
Researchers collaborating on the project aim to have new preventative measures in place on driving beaches between Bribie Island and the Cooloola Coast by the middle of the year.
"Some of the countermeasures could be similar to the ones we see around our school zones," Mr Anderson said.
"Reactive and flashing signs that remind drivers of the speed limit, or even signs that detect the driver's speed and then warn them to slow down like we've seen at road works."
He hoped the measures would help bust the myth that beach-drivers were less likely to be caught breaking the law.
"Speeding, drugs, alcohol, all these things are going to lead to a disaster unless it's addressed," Mr Anderson said.
