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Subscriber only Friends and family paid tribute to those they lost in tragic circumstances in what was already a difficult year. From valiant battles with cancer lost to a mining death and shocking traffic crashes, these are some of the people the community mourned whose lives were cut short in 2020. Donald Rabbitt, 33, died while working at Blackwater s Curragh coal mine. He was reportedly working on a float, which transports machinery, when it crushed him.
Donald Rabbitt Mine contractor Donald Rabbitt was reportedly just minutes from the end of his shift at Curragh Coal Mine when he was found trapped under a piece of heavy machinery on January 12.
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Subscriber only It takes more than one person to score a try, win a game or be crowned premiers - that s the beauty of rugby league. But when the spotlight is almost always on the collective, sometimes it s nice to dig deeper. Of the hundreds of Mackay rugby league stories we shared this year, here are 16 that went beyond club and competition. Isaiah Tass took the path less travelled to be at the NRL Nines in Perth this year. The Northern Suburbs junior was never given a leg up or hand out, not that he would have accepted one anyway.
Almost half the drivers who died on Mackay roads in five years were under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs. That is the stark reality revealed in the University of the Sunshine Coast s Road Safety Research Collaboration study into fatal crashes in Queensland from 2011 to 2015. Professor Jeremy Davey said data suggested drink-driving and drug-driving fatalities were higher for rural and regional areas like Mackay. Last week on Mackay region roads, police stopped 17 alleged drug-drivers and 14 alleged drink-drivers, Acting Senior Sergeant Daniel Goldburg of Mackay Road Policing Unit said. The figure is almost double the average of 9-10 drug-drivers charged per week in the Mackay district last year.