What began as a great adventure led to the worst day of Colin Caudell's life as he watched a truck run over his wife while she was working as a traffic controller.

Key points: Suzanne Caudell was killed in 2013 while working as a traffic controller on the Bruce Highway in Queensland

Suzanne Caudell was killed in 2013 while working as a traffic controller on the Bruce Highway in Queensland Since his wife's death, Colin Caudell has been campaigning for safer conditions for road workers and traffic controllers

Since his wife's death, Colin Caudell has been campaigning for safer conditions for road workers and traffic controllers The Traffic Management Association of Australia says the use of technology can reduce the risk to road workers

Colin and Suzanne Caudell had been travelling around Australia as grey nomads when they decided to work as traffic controllers.

They had been on the job for two years when they were assigned to a job on Queensland's Bruce Highway at Marlborough, north of Rockhampton.

The road was being widened to improve safety, following a crash that killed a number of tourists in a mini bus.

"It had been a long, exhausting day, and I'd given Sue her 30-minute break and it was time for her to come back on to the job," Mr Caudell said.

"She said her feet were hurting, she was tired, and she was looking forward to the end of the day."

The Caudells were working on this stretch of the Bruce Highway in 2013 when Suzanne was killed. ( Supplied: Colin Caudell )

Mr Caudell said he had cheekily suggested he would give his wife a kiss before he hopped in the car to head north along the highway to continue working about 300 metres away.

"She said to me "No, we can't kiss on the job, we're workers, that's sexual harassment, it can't happen," he said.

"So I didn't get to give her a kiss goodbye."

Five minutes later, Mr Caudell said he saw a water truck, the last vehicle that had come through on that road section, watering the road in front of his wife where she was standing.

Then a cloud of dust "enveloped everything".

"Out of this dust came this silhouette of a truck, a black truck on the footpath or on the road verge where Sue stood," he said.

Colin and Sue were grey nomads, working their way around Australia as traffic controllers. ( Supplied: Colin Caudell )

When he couldn't raise her on the radio or phone, Mr Caudell drove towards his wife and saw her lying face down in the middle of the road about 50 metres past where he had last seen her.

She had been hit by the rear of the first trailer of the truck.

Mr Caudell, a shift supervisor, said the speed limit through the roadworks was 40km/h, and 60km/h directly outside the works area.

The truck that struck his wife had been driving at 106km/h in a 60km/h zone.

The driver was convicted of dangerous driving causing death. He served 10 months in jail, and was disqualified from driving for two years.

'I have a life sentence'

In his new book, Pick myself up and dust myself off, Mr Caudell calls for better protection for traffic controllers and road workers.

"This industry really needs to be brought in to the 21st century," he said.

"Traffic controllers are out there protecting the public.

"The minimum driver's licence disqualification for dangerous driving causing death should be five years."

Mr Caudell also wants to see safety measures, such as point-to-point cameras, used on road works in Australia.

"These are used in the UK on the busy A4 [road]," he said.

"Since they've had that, there's been a 68 per cent reduction in accidents where the roadworks have been conducted."

A black hard hat memorial marks the place where Suzanne Caudell was killed on the job. ( Supplied: Colin Caudell )

Mr Caudell wanted Queensland police to do more to enforce speed limits at roadworks.

"You might see a policeman sitting in a car, but that's an off-duty policeman who's being paid overtime to sit there, he cannot enforce the speed limit," he said.

The Traffic Management Association of Australia (TMAA) vice president, Paul Kelly, said speed limit signs at roadworks sites were enforceable, and police officers could, and did, charge people with speeding offences in Queensland.

"If there's a police officer there — whether he's on duty or off duty is irrelevant — we're just happy with the fact that they're there with their blue and white lights, because as soon as you put those up everybody slows down," he said.

"You get booked going through there [if you're speeding]; it's the same offence."

But Mr Kelly agreed there was a need for better use of technology to protect road workers.

'Slow down — it's the law'

Queensland's Transport and Main Roads Minister, Mark Bailey, said the government last year toughened dangerous driving laws and introduced new laws for careless driving.

He said a campaign highlighting the importance of safety around roadworks emphasised how vulnerable traffic workers were, and that road safety was everybody's responsibility.

"Just like an office, these are workplaces and everyone deserves to be safe," he said.

"When you approach roadworks, slow down, drive to conditions and obey signage and traffic controller directions — it is the law."

Speed limits inside roadwork zones are enforceable. ( Supplied: RACQ )

Technology making roadworks safer

As part of a push to make the "very high-risk environment" safer for road workers and traffic controllers, a new national reporting app is being developed to gather data on "near misses".

The app, which is being developed by TMAA and the Australian Asphalt and Paving Association, is being trailled in Victoria now, Mr Kelly said.

"Currently there is no data to say that this is a risk and that needs to be fixed," he said.

"To make it easy for traffic controllers nationally to report incidences on road work sites back to the relevant authorities [so they can] implement change, that's the key we think."

He said the increased use of portable traffic lights had also taken more traffic controllers out of the line of fire.

"We're fully supportive of any organisation or any person who wants to raise and challenge the safety of our people out there," he said.

"It is a high-risk occupation … and we're probably one of the few countries that still do it with people out there as a presence on the road.

"Technology needs to speed up as far as we're concerned."