Troubled road: Oil spill, breakdowns, crashes and building fire on highway in last month alone

As the state reels from the multi-vehicle crash near the turn-off to Wallerawang in the days leading up to Christmas - in which two people died and more than a dozen were injured - a search of Live Traffic shows how strife-prone the highway remains.

Incidents in December on the stretch of the highway from Mount Lambie to the base of Mount Victoria included breakdowns, an oil spill, crashes and a building fire.

There was a car crash at Mount Lambie just after noon on December 30, only a day after the tragedy near the Wallerawang turn-off, and Bathurst Highway Patrol have told the Western Advocate that they clocked two drivers allegedly travelling at 170 kilometres an hour on the highway that evening.

Live Traffic shows breakdowns in December included a truck at South Bowenfels (which closed one of two lanes), a car at Little Hartley (which closed one of two lanes), a B-double at Victoria Pass (which affected traffic in both directions), a bus further up the pass (which closed one of two lanes) and a truck near Mount Victoria (which affected eastbound traffic).

Two of those breakdowns happened within two days of each other.

Narrowing the search to Blackheath, there were two incidents in two days in December: a car and truck crash on the Lithgow side of the village and a truck crash on the Katoomba side of the village.

In the stretch between Bathurst and Meadow Flat, meanwhile, there was a diesel spill, two-car crash, fallen tree and wires down between the start of November and the end of December alone.

In terms of the pre-Christmas tragedy near the Wallerawang turn-off, the highway was closed and a diversion was in place for more than 12 hours as emergency services worked at the scene.

That highway closure followed a truck and car crash at Mount Victoria in late September that closed the road for almost 19 hours.