Despite an altitude only four hundred metres above Melbourne and a Great Dividing Range position which ensures more challenging winters, one thing visitors, new Ballaratians and the unwary alike often forget is how much these climatic factors can affect the region’s roads.
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The storm band on Saturday night was one good example. It may have barely raised a comment elsewhere but when the front tore through the Creswick region it demanded a localised expertise and caution to stay safe on the road. With a spectacular light show and curtains of water that made it difficult to determine what was road and what was temporary lake, this was no time to be driving at the speed limit as though things were normal. As always it is the old mantra that the police must be tired of saying; motorists must drive to the conditions.
If the icy bite of the wind of Sunday was a dampener on an otherwise successful Heritage weekend it should also serve as a flagfall moment to reassess the perils of the winter ahead. By the end of the week it will be sunny again but overnight cold will be the precursor to that other deceptively dangerous winter threat; black ice.
Tragically this was a major factor in a double fatality last year but there were dozens more incidents where people lost control. The problem remains the same; the signs advise slowing to a crawl of 40km/h but many don’t heed them. Basic roadside black ice signs in prone areas sit unnoticed for 10 months of the year and too often insufficiently alert people when it matters. Much better but more costly are temperature activated signals but these number only a few across the region. Biggest problem of all is that with or without these signs, people either do not heed them or once ensconced inside the cosy insularity of their cars; with the heater and the radio up high; feel they are travelling in a bubble.
Unfortunately that is never the case. So long as tyres touch the earth we are still at the mercy of the road conditions and have to adjust our speed and driver behaviour accordingly. But the need to nullify these hazards doesn’t stop there. Like most motoring accidents involving a degree of speed and loss of control the ultimate responsibility lies with the driver. What the police are saying is that winter often presents conditions out of the ordinary and driving behavior must change accordingly.
Most of all it is about take that extra bit of care the roads demand.
