A woman has died and at least two people suffered life-threatening injuries after the charter coach, travelling from Cairns to tourism hot spot Airlie Beach, rolled off the Bruce Highway near Gumlu in Queensland's Whitsundays.
There were 29 passengers on the coach when it crashed about 4pm on Thursday, including the driver, a Mackay man, 70, who was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
All of the passengers on board were tourists, many of them foreign nationals.
One woman died after suffering multiple significant traumatic injuries, a Queensland Ambulance Service spokesperson told AAP.
Twenty-eight people were taken to hospital, including one in a life-threatening condition who was driven to Ayr Hospital before being airlifted to Townsville University Hospital.
Another person in a life-threatening condition was also flown to the Townsville hospital.Â
Others were taken to Townsville, Ayr and Bowen hospitals by ambulance, private bus and plane in a stable condition.
Eleven ambulances as well as two helicopters and a Royal Flying Doctor Service plane attended the scene.
No other vehicles are believed to have been involved in the incident.
Superintendent Dean Cavanagh from Mackay Whitsunday Police thanked first responders and said it was a confronting and traumatic scene for emergency services.
"It was an amazing effort, and we will ensure that support and welfare will be maintained for those officers," he told reporters in Mackay.
Supt Cavanagh said the efforts of multiple emergency response crews and the public had saved many lives.
He would not speculate about the cause of the crash, saying the Forensic Crash Unit would investigate what he described as a very complex incident in an isolated area.
Thursday's crash occurred near the site of a collision involving a Greyhound bus that killed three passengers and seriously injured others in June 2024
The Bruce Highway has long been considered one of the most dangerous roads in Australia.
Of the 302 people killed on Queensland roads in 2024, 41 died on the Bruce Highway, while another 7500 were hospitalised after driving on the road, according to data from the state's Department of Transport and Main Roads.
In a bid to bolster driver safety, the federal government earmarked an extra $812 million for the second stage of upgrades to the Bruce Highway in Tuesday's budget.
Queensland Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said the incident underlined the necessity of upgrades to the highway.
"It's why we've fought so hard to get an 80/20 funding deal with the federal government and $9 billion of investment on the Bruce Highway to make it safer," he told reporters on the Gold Coast.
"All of that money is being spent north of Gympie and south of Cairns on stretches of road like the one the tragic incident occurred on yesterday."
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