EDITORIAL
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How on earth is this still happening?
Another week has passed and tragically we had to bring you the news of yet another death on our roads.
This time it was an elderly man from Rosanna who had been driving down the wrong side of the Western Freeway, resulting in a head-on smash at Wallace.
The thought of two cars colliding at 100km/h in itself is confronting to imagine, but sadly it is the type of incident that has become all too common in recent times.
A four-wheel drive flipping up to five times at more than 100km/h and a motorcyclist coming off his bike at the same speed have both occurred within the last month.
It is hard to believe these three fatal accidents have occurred within 10km of each – all in the Ballarat-bound lanes of the Western Freeway.
The government is throwing billions of dollars at road safety, including wire-rope barriers along the freeway, but it’s far from the perfect solution.
Eventually it comes to a point where we, the community, need to start taking responsibility for these alarming figures.
It’s arguable the Western Freeway is the safest it has ever been.
When driving it, it’s difficult to imagine how such crashes are happening. Yet we are seeing them time and time again.
In less than two months there have been eight people killed in separate crashes within 75km of Ballarat.
Let those figures sink in – eight lives cut abruptly short.
Our police must feel like they are banging their heads against a brick wall every time that call comes in.
They aren’t alone.
There are some volunteer fire brigades that have been to three fatal crashes in as many weeks. The toll it takes on these people cannot be underestimated.
There is no recurring theme to how these facilities have occurred. If anything, they have all been in stark contrast to one another. This means there’s no simple solution.
It’s up to us as a whole to make sure we don’t become part of the problem.