Remembrance Drive: VicRoads investigates lower speed

VicRoads will start community consultation on a proposed 80km speed limit later this month.

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There have been three deaths on the road since 2010 – all involving high speeds and trees.

In the five years since 2016 there have also been three serious injuries on Remembrance Drive.

Part of the road’s safety problem centres on the Avenue of Honour trees and their close proximity to the roads.

VicRoads regional director Ewen Nevett said there were limited options available to reduce serious crashes on the road because of its heritage trees.

“During August we want to do some community engagement with the people out at Remembrance Drive, particularly Cardigan Village,” he said.

“We will let them know the information we have gathered, the issue we have got out there, and talk to them about some of the solutions.”

The trees marking the Avenue of Honour are close to the road shoulder.

Barriers are also not a preferred option because of their affect on the road’s heritage image.

Mr Nevett said reducing the speed limit was the best way to reduce crashes.

“We need to ensure that if people leave the road they have the opportunity to recover,” he said.

“If that is not an option then the speed they leave the road at should be at the point the consequence is not as severe.

“Speeds of less than 80km are more likely to be survived.”

Me Nevett said VicRoads would not make a decision on a speed limit reduction until it had consulted with the community.

Ballarat City Council passed a motion to lobby for a reduction in the speed limit on July 12.

Infrastructure and environment director Terry Demeo said the decision ultimately rested with VicRoads, but would have council support.

“The speed limit on Remembrance Drive has been discussed, and council will continue to lobby for a reduction,” he said.

VicRoads’ speed testing showed about 15 per cent of drivers exceeded the current 100km speed limit on the road.

There has been no decision on where a new 80km zone would end, including whether it should stop at the Western Highway overpass or extend all the way to Learmonth.

A report into the road recommended a reduction in speed limit when it was presented to council’s ordinary meeting on July 12.

It also said rumble strips running the length of the road would help reduce crashes caused by driver distraction or fatigue.

Cr Daniel Moloney said although extra travel time was frustrating, it had to be balanced against the cost of people’s lives.

“When this was last raised we didn’t have the Western Highway duplication, so if you are going to Beaufort, Ararat and beyond you now have that duplication,” he said.

“Ideally the high speed travel should be on a road designed to carry that 110km an hour traffic.

“We are all guilty of saying ‘I am a great driver and it is other people at fault’, but the reality is we all make mistakes at some stage.”

Ballarat west has a growing population with developments at Lucas, Delacombe and Alfredton adding to the traffic around the Arch of Victory and on the Avenue of Honour.

Cr Moloney said residents along Remembrance Drive were fearful every time they heard bang it would be another fatality.

“I have received phone calls from a couple of people who said they had arrived soon after fatalities and they were dreading the next time a car did slam into trees,” he said.

“They had a dread of hearing that bang and seeing a horrific scene outside their house.”

A 20-year-old man was killed in July, 2010, after he lost control while heading west and hit a tree at Cardigan.

A four-year-old was killed in 2016 when her father veered off the road near Draffins Road in April last year.

Police later charged the father with culpable driving for the offence.

An 18-year-old was killed in October last year in a crash near Lucas when his car hit a tree.