A BALLARAT man is leading a push for roadside barriers to be installed along a deadly stretch of road.
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VicRoads confirmed their were nine casualties along Remembrance Drive, between Dyson Drive and the Western Highway over a five year period.
Just weeks ago a four year old girl was tragically killed along that same, 13.5 kilometre long, stretch of road.
In a letter addressed to The Courier and VicRoads resident Scott Wright has urged the council and VicRoads to “consider wire rope barriers and/ or a permanent speed reduction,” Mr Wright said.
“Almost every crash results in hitting a tree due to their close proximity to the road.”
Traffic along that section of road has increased dramatically. In the five year period until 2015, traffic increase by four per cent, from an average of 1720 to 1800 vehicles per day.
Four of the nine crashes recorded in the same period by VicRoads were run-off-road crashes into trees.
Following the recent fatality VicRoads Regional Director Ewen Nevett said a dedicated road safety team conducted an audit.
“Following the tragic fatality on April 23, our road safety team conducted a safety audit where the crash occurred,” Mr Nevett said.
He said any changes would need to take the historically significant Avenue of Honour trees in to consideration.”
Ballarat mayor and road safety committee chair Des Hudson said council had not lobbied for road safety barriers along that stretch but said, with statistics to back up the push, it could be done in the future.
“Where you have data that shows a number of accidents have occurred there and the barriers could be preventable … then it is a significant investment. Especially if it can change the result of accident from being significant injuries to a much better outcome,” Cr Hudson said.
TAC Road Safety Senior Manager Samantha Cockfield said the new Towards Zero approach road to safety focused on the fact that people always make mistakes.
“(Our focus is on) designing a system around them that will cushion them from death or serious injury,” Ms Cockfield said. “These …. will either prevent crashes from happening or limit the amount of force involved when a collision does occur.”
