19 May 2012

Fatal in Holt. Colliding with a roadworks truck.

| johnboy
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ACT Policing is investigating a fatal collision at the intersection of Southern Cross Drive and Florey Drive this morning, May 19.

About 7.30 am a white Toyota Corolla was turning right from Florey Drive onto Southern Cross Drive when it collided with a light truck which was travelling east along Southern Cross Drive.

The 59-year-old Macgregor man driving the Corolla died at the scene and a man and woman from the truck were taken to the Canberra Hospital with minor injuries.

This is the third fatality on ACT roads this year.

Westbound traffic is being diverted from Southern Cross Drive onto Moyers Crescent. Eastbound traffic is being diverted left onto Florey Drive.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

https://twitter.com/CPOACT/status/203666537272446976

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yellowsnow said :

gazket said :

What gets me is that for all these years Tony Gill and others in govt have been saying that the traffic impacts of developments like West Macgregor will be minimal, nothing to worry about and will be readily absorbed by existing infrastructure (basically telling concerned residents “go and get stuffed, our consultants’ back-of-the envelope traffic projections are right, and you’re wrong”) …

… and then suddenly Tony Gill is on the ABC news after the accident saying that the intersection is dangerous … because of all the extra traffic from West Macgregor

Can we believe anything they say anymore?

I actually reckon he is right. All the roads in that area were designed with extra traffic in mind (ever look at an old plan of the ACT?), so yes the existing roads can absorb the extra traffic because they were designed for it.

However clearly things like driver behaviour need to change (which IMO is the biggest cause of accidents at these two intersections) and traffic flow measures need to be put in place when that extra flow causes issues.

To me weather a road can cope with the flow and weather extra measures need to be put in place are two different things.

bigred said :

FFS, this looks entirely avoidable. Anywhere there are road works going on, the treatment is f’ing dangerous with lines of sight obstructed. And the speeding is OK culture means a minor (often avoidable) bingle becomes a fatal.

I think the biggest problem with the speeding culture is inappropriate speed limits and more importantly inconstant speed limits. For example yesterday I drove along Belconnen Way at Hawker and there was a 40km/h road work area for about 100m, but and a big but the roadworks were a bus stop pad off the road, fenced off and not a worker in site. The road was a clear as what it would be if there was no ‘work’ going on.

Then 5 minutes later I am at the Florey Drive roadworks and the site has barriers, reduced visiblity, closed lanes, history of crashes and the roadworks speed limit signs are turned around meaning the normal 60km/h limit applies.

wildturkeycanoe6:16 am 21 May 12

gazket said :

The A.C.T government made millions in stamp duty selling blocks in Macgregor West yet spent nothing to upgrade Southern Cross DR. All the upgrades should of been done years ago when they first started selling land out there. It seems the gov cared more about the golden moth than upgrades to the connecting roads to the suburb and it’s residents.

http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/84855/pdf/2008-27.pdf

3.2 Traffic / Road Connections
“The main vehicle access will be from Southern Cross Drive. Two further connections into the
existing suburb of Macgregor are also proposed, at the extension of Cannan Crescent and
onto Osburn Drive near Clode Crescent, to provide connections to Macgregor Primary
School and the local centre precinct. Osburn Drive will experience some increase in traffic,
but this will not have a significant impact and Osburn Drive will continue to operate well within
its capacity. A roundabout is proposed on the intersection link near Clode Crescent. A
further option of connecting the estate with Ginninderra Drive is also suggested but is subject
to future assessment. This connection is not required on traffic grounds.”

5.2.1 Golden Sun Moth
The Golden Sun Moth habitat site in Macgregor West (survey undertaken in 2004) covers
approximately 70ha, making it the sixth largest site for the species in the ACT. The highest
density of moths recorded in the study area was along Ginninderra Creek, particularly on
the north-east edge between the study area and Dunlop. The moth was present in lower
numbers on the drier slopes overlooking the creek, with a few records extended south as
far as the access road to the former sewage treatment works.
Wildlife Research and Monitoring Unit – Territory and Municipal Services (WRMU -TAMS)
undertook an additional survey in 2005, which resulted in similar findings to the initial study in
2004. WRMU have confirmed that no additional surveys would be necessary at this stage.
Appropriate land management of the site needs to be implemented immediately as the
existing lease expired in December 2005. The current biomass management regime of the
site needs to be maintained to allow the Golden Sun Moth habitat to continue and shall be
incorporated into land management agreement for the lease/licence of this land.
It was recommend by WRMU that consideration be given to making modifications to the
proposed boundary. Although the indicative subdivision layout (see Figure 3) is based on the
northern boundary recommended by the ecological assessment, the subdivision may need to
be adjusted to the boundary proposed by WRMU. This requires further consideration as part
of the estate development planning process, which will also need to take into account
bushfire asset protection requirements and habitat implications. A referral under the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act will also be required

I’ve been living in West Mac for over 3 years and have never seen a golden sun moth. Did they kill them all?
As for the connection roads, Cannan Cr extension and roundabout has only created a cool burnout pad for Friday nights, whilst the number of near misses at the roundabout near Clode Pl. that have personally affected my family are too many for my liking. I think the Osburnese are still upset at having lost the clear passage through here and have little regard for traffic coming form Eccles.

thatsnotme – I agree 100%, where is the plan for the upgraded intersection? There is a pile of data for the upcoming 3rd lane for Parks Way, but not even a description of what they’re doing on Florey dr. I laso don’t remember seeing any of the usual black ropes across the road counting vehicle movement numbers on either street lately, so how can they manage traffic properly without having done the research first? Unless of course the uni student with a clicker sitting under a tree about a year ago was hired by the government.

gazket said :

The A.C.T government made millions in stamp duty selling blocks in Macgregor West yet spent nothing to upgrade Southern Cross DR. All the upgrades should of been done years ago when they first started selling land out there. It seems the gov cared more about the golden moth than upgrades to the connecting roads to the suburb and it’s residents.

What gets me is that for all these years Tony Gill and others in govt have been saying that the traffic impacts of developments like West Macgregor will be minimal, nothing to worry about and will be readily absorbed by existing infrastructure (basically telling concerned residents “go and get stuffed, our consultants’ back-of-the envelope traffic projections are right, and you’re wrong”) …

… and then suddenly Tony Gill is on the ABC news after the accident saying that the intersection is dangerous … because of all the extra traffic from West Macgregor

Can we believe anything they say anymore?

Pretty much the same thing is about to happen at Molonglo … it’s kinda obvious to pretty much anyone other than govt-paid consultants that there will be peak hour chaos with thousands (in 10-20yrs tens of thousands) of extra cars channelled onto the the few roads providing access to Molonglo, but no – the govt knows better. Apparently the roads will cope as they are, with some minor tweaks down the track. Yes, they pretty much say all will be fine and dandy and the citizens of Weston Creek will be dancing in the streets because more people will make the district pulse with activity and one day, in twenty years, we might even get a decent direct bus service to the city thanks to all the extra demand in the area.

The A.C.T government made millions in stamp duty selling blocks in Macgregor West yet spent nothing to upgrade Southern Cross DR. All the upgrades should of been done years ago when they first started selling land out there. It seems the gov cared more about the golden moth than upgrades to the connecting roads to the suburb and it’s residents.

http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/84855/pdf/2008-27.pdf

3.2 Traffic / Road Connections
“The main vehicle access will be from Southern Cross Drive. Two further connections into the
existing suburb of Macgregor are also proposed, at the extension of Cannan Crescent and
onto Osburn Drive near Clode Crescent, to provide connections to Macgregor Primary
School and the local centre precinct. Osburn Drive will experience some increase in traffic,
but this will not have a significant impact and Osburn Drive will continue to operate well within
its capacity. A roundabout is proposed on the intersection link near Clode Crescent. A
further option of connecting the estate with Ginninderra Drive is also suggested but is subject
to future assessment. This connection is not required on traffic grounds.”

5.2.1 Golden Sun Moth
The Golden Sun Moth habitat site in Macgregor West (survey undertaken in 2004) covers
approximately 70ha, making it the sixth largest site for the species in the ACT. The highest
density of moths recorded in the study area was along Ginninderra Creek, particularly on
the north-east edge between the study area and Dunlop. The moth was present in lower
numbers on the drier slopes overlooking the creek, with a few records extended south as
far as the access road to the former sewage treatment works.
Wildlife Research and Monitoring Unit – Territory and Municipal Services (WRMU -TAMS)
undertook an additional survey in 2005, which resulted in similar findings to the initial study in
2004. WRMU have confirmed that no additional surveys would be necessary at this stage.
Appropriate land management of the site needs to be implemented immediately as the
existing lease expired in December 2005. The current biomass management regime of the
site needs to be maintained to allow the Golden Sun Moth habitat to continue and shall be
incorporated into land management agreement for the lease/licence of this land.
It was recommend by WRMU that consideration be given to making modifications to the
proposed boundary. Although the indicative subdivision layout (see Figure 3) is based on the
northern boundary recommended by the ecological assessment, the subdivision may need to
be adjusted to the boundary proposed by WRMU. This requires further consideration as part
of the estate development planning process, which will also need to take into account
bushfire asset protection requirements and habitat implications. A referral under the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act will also be required

FFS, this looks entirely avoidable. Anywhere there are road works going on, the treatment is f’ing dangerous with lines of sight obstructed. And the speeding is OK culture means a minor (often avoidable) bingle becomes a fatal.

vandam said :

Jethro said :

Sigh.

I know that this intersection is in the process of getting lights, but until the government can actually find the money to fix the Starke St intersection a couple hundred metres down the road, this area will continue to have serious collisions.

Crashes happen on this stretch of road on an almost weekly basis. It beggars belief that funding cannot be found to properly fix it.

I understand that lights will be put in at Florey dr and eventually a roundabout at Starke st.

What’s that based on? The official (and outdated) word on the TAMS website is

The upgrade works for the Starke Street intersection has been postponed pending the identification of a safe and financially viable option, including signalisation of the existing layout.

If you know something the rest of us don’t, I’d love to hear it. God knows it’s damn near impossible to guess what the Government may do.

What really pisses me off, is that as a community, we had more opportunity to be involved in the planning of the new McDonalds near the Starke St intersection, than we ever had to be involved in the planning of these intersections. It’s like there’s one rule for private development, and another for GovCo. I can’t even get online and see what’s actually planned for the Florey Drive intersection – there are no plans online, no information aside from an intention to signalise the intersection. Meanwhile, I can see exactly where the parking, kitchen, cool room, drive through, seating, signage, entry and exit of the McDonalds will be – because as a private developer they have to be far more open than our supposedly ‘open government’ will ever be.

dvaey said :

Nightshade said :

Gerry-Built said :

I also have to wonder if traffic from MacWest is going up Southern Cross Drive to avoid the disaster that is Drake Brockman Drive – with 13 speed humps that need slowing to 40kph…

That’s Spofforth St with the speed humps, and the West MacGregor traffic is supposed to go up Southern Cross Drive. The speed humps were put there to discourage them from taking a short cut (and from speeding – a Roads ACT investigation found 15% of motorists exceeding 75 km/hr when the limit is 50 km/h). But the increased traffic volume creates problems on Southern Cross Drive as well.

I have never understood why Spofforth St is limited to 50. It is a very wide road, with a fenced golf-course 40m to the West of the road, and a 10m naturestrip before the footpath on the East side. There seems to be little reason to it, other than to discourage drivers using that road.

What they should be doing, is developing Spofforth as a more major route, leading through to Drake Brockman. Drake Brockman also has plenty of room for widening with undeveloped land on each side for most of the way. The current option seems to be to try to tweak 40 year old problems on the existing route, only now that more traffic is using the road.

i understand why spofforth is 50 i also understand why so much money was spent on a traffic survey and then ridiculous speed humps in the street…….the reason is that a very vocal former mla lives on the street and his cronies in the labor party still jump when the old boy cracks the whip.

Felix the Cat said :

JC said :

LnBeyond said :

I couldn’t believe they didn’t put in lights or at least a roundabout when they last upgraded the intersection, how long ago, only one or two years ago?

Don’t recall any upgrades having been done at this intersection in recent times.

They extended the traffic island so that coming from McGregor/Dunlop you had to turn left into Florey Dr and this also gave the traffic turning left onto Southern Cross from Florey Dr it’s own lane.

That was done when I was living in MacGregor, I moved on 12 years ago, so would think your looking at more like 15-20! About the only thing I recall recently (and even then think it is about 5 years) is they moved the hold line back to be more or less inline with the giveway sign, previously it was a little more forward.

Felix the Cat1:35 pm 20 May 12

JC said :

LnBeyond said :

I couldn’t believe they didn’t put in lights or at least a roundabout when they last upgraded the intersection, how long ago, only one or two years ago?

Don’t recall any upgrades having been done at this intersection in recent times.

They extended the traffic island so that coming from McGregor/Dunlop you had to turn left into Florey Dr and this also gave the traffic turning left onto Southern Cross from Florey Dr it’s own lane.

Jethro said :

Surely finding the money to properly fix a stretch of road that sees collisions on an almost weekly basis should be a priority?

The traffic lights going in will help make safer the intersection where this collision occurred, but won’t do anything for Starke Street, and very well make it more dangerous as backed up traffic from the light makes it even harder for people pulling out of Starke to find a gap.

2 roundabouts would have been a much better and much more long-term solution. Instead we have a government that is willing to allow a known blackspot to remain dangerous because it will save a few bucks on roadworks.

Agree 100% as I said it should have been fixed a good 20+ years ago and also agree that a roundabout would have been the better option. Hope the lights they install have a red light camera system especially on the west-bound direction otherwise flogbags will without doubt try and run the red or speed on through. The real issue with Florey drive is the speed and regularity drivers come from Belconnen in particular.

LnBeyond said :

I couldn’t believe they didn’t put in lights or at least a roundabout when they last upgraded the intersection, how long ago, only one or two years ago?

Don’t recall any upgrades having been done at this intersection in recent times.

Jethro said :

Sigh.

I know that this intersection is in the process of getting lights, but until the government can actually find the money to fix the Starke St intersection a couple hundred metres down the road, this area will continue to have serious collisions.

Crashes happen on this stretch of road on an almost weekly basis. It beggars belief that funding cannot be found to properly fix it.

I understand that lights will be put in at Florey dr and eventually a roundabout at Starke st.

JC said :

cranky said :

This being the case, it is reprehensible that money has been expended on any other supposed road safety measures before this locations problems have been addressed.

For Govco to claim, probably incorrectly, that ONE death on Hindmarsh Drive warrants the introduction of point to point cameras, but is prepared to allow deaths to occur on Southern Cross Drive is simply a case of revenue raising being more important than keeping the citizens alive.

Some penny pinching bureaucrat, in conjunction with another unable to assess the dangerous results of his roadworks, is responsible for this death. I hope you know who you are.

That’s a bit melodramatic and shows a complete lack of understand as to how and where money is allocated by the government. Ever heard of a thing called priorities?

Surely finding the money to properly fix a stretch of road that sees collisions on an almost weekly basis should be a priority?

The traffic lights going in will help make safer the intersection where this collision occurred, but won’t do anything for Starke Street, and very well make it more dangerous as backed up traffic from the light makes it even harder for people pulling out of Starke to find a gap.

2 roundabouts would have been a much better and much more long-term solution. Instead we have a government that is willing to allow a known blackspot to remain dangerous because it will save a few bucks on roadworks.

Nightshade said :

Gerry-Built said :

I also have to wonder if traffic from MacWest is going up Southern Cross Drive to avoid the disaster that is Drake Brockman Drive – with 13 speed humps that need slowing to 40kph…

That’s Spofforth St with the speed humps, and the West MacGregor traffic is supposed to go up Southern Cross Drive. The speed humps were put there to discourage them from taking a short cut (and from speeding – a Roads ACT investigation found 15% of motorists exceeding 75 km/hr when the limit is 50 km/h). But the increased traffic volume creates problems on Southern Cross Drive as well.

I have never understood why Spofforth St is limited to 50. It is a very wide road, with a fenced golf-course 40m to the West of the road, and a 10m naturestrip before the footpath on the East side. There seems to be little reason to it, other than to discourage drivers using that road.

What they should be doing, is developing Spofforth as a more major route, leading through to Drake Brockman. Drake Brockman also has plenty of room for widening with undeveloped land on each side for most of the way. The current option seems to be to try to tweak 40 year old problems on the existing route, only now that more traffic is using the road.

This intersection was seriously dangerous before, but now worse than ever with the roadworks.
My first attempt at the intersection with the barriers up nearly saw me collide with another vehicle as we both realised at the same time that their lane had been reduced to half a lane.

I couldn’t believe they didn’t put in lights or at least a roundabout when they last upgraded the intersection, how long ago, only one or two years ago?

Sorry, something strange happened with the quoting in my previous post. I wrote the second paragraph, not Gerry-built.

Gerry-Built said :

I also have to wonder if traffic from MacWest is going up Southern Cross Drive to avoid the disaster that is Drake Brockman Drive – with 13 speed humps that need slowing to 40kph…

Gerry-Built said :

That’s Spofforth St with the speed humps, and the West MacGregor traffic is supposed to go up Southern Cross Drive. The speed humps were put there to discourage them from taking a short cut (and from speeding – a Roads ACT investigation found 15% of motorists exceeding 75 km/hr when the limit is 50 km/h). But the increased traffic volume creates problems on Southern Cross Drive as well.

Devil_n_Disquiz8:04 pm 19 May 12

RIP Stan. You’ll be missed by all in the Silver Service fleet. 🙁

Innovation said :

“This is the third fatality on ACT roads this year.”

…. and the third in almost as many weeks. I was worried the “no fatalities in 12 months” announcement (http://the-riotact.com/a-year-without-road-fatalities/69033) would jinx everything.

Simon Corbell at the time said it was down to: “increased driver awareness, advances in technology and increased police patrols targeting traffic offences, I have no doubt that the introduction of RAPID has had an impact.”.

Looks like that statement was not so much the result of analysis but rather more about opportunism.

Maybe they can stop all the posing they do to pretend they are a “government” (eg, stupid opportunistic press releases) and get on with being the town council we want them to be.

Nightshade said :

All the traffic going to and from West MacGregor ensures that safe gaps are increasingly few and far between on this part of Southern Cross Drive…

I also have to wonder if traffic from MacWest is going up Southern Cross Drive to avoid the disaster that is Drake Brockman Drive – with 13 speed humps that need slowing to 40kph…

cranky said :

This being the case, it is reprehensible that money has been expended on any other supposed road safety measures before this locations problems have been addressed.

For Govco to claim, probably incorrectly, that ONE death on Hindmarsh Drive warrants the introduction of point to point cameras, but is prepared to allow deaths to occur on Southern Cross Drive is simply a case of revenue raising being more important than keeping the citizens alive.

Some penny pinching bureaucrat, in conjunction with another unable to assess the dangerous results of his roadworks, is responsible for this death. I hope you know who you are.

That’s a bit melodramatic and shows a complete lack of understand as to how and where money is allocated by the government. Ever heard of a thing called priorities?

Besides you raise a point about speed camera’s being revenue raising. Maybe stop and think that the revenue from speed camera’s is what has allowed the government to have the money to now make this a priority they can afford to fix. Guess the old chicken and the egg dilemma.

But yes this and the Starke Street intersection should have been fixed a good 20+ years ago.

PS does anyone know if the Southern Cross drive service road intersection between Starke Street and Florey Drive is going to be permanently closed? Hope so as it is yet another added complication at these two intersections.

oops. meant looking right up the hill, not left. Now even more dangerous!

Agreed, heading west down the hill on Southern Cross is dangerous when it merges into 1 lane at the tennis courts. The race is definitely on.

What’s worse is turning left out of Moyes cres (near tennis courts) onto Southern Cross. Not only are you turning onto the racetrack, but you’re doing so at the most dangerous point. You check the on-coming traffic by looking left up the hill where you see 2 lanes. As soon as you choose your time to go you realise that you’re right in the middle of a merge into 1 lane. It catches a lot of people off-guard. Stand at this intersection for 5 minutes and count how many horn-blasts you hear.

Tennis is awesome.

Quote from ABC online.

“There has been a number of fatalities at this intersection over the years and it is a known blackspot where there are collisions,” said Superintendent Kylie Flower.

This being the case, it is reprehensible that money has been expended on any other supposed road safety measures before this locations problems have been addressed.

For Govco to claim, probably incorrectly, that ONE death on Hindmarsh Drive warrants the introduction of point to point cameras, but is prepared to allow deaths to occur on Southern Cross Drive is simply a case of revenue raising being more important than keeping the citizens alive.

Some penny pinching bureacrat, in conjunction with another unable to assess the dangerous results of his roadworks, is responsible for this death. I hope you know who you are.

Yes, speed limits not being observed also probably played a part. 7.30am Sat morning is not normally a time when road workers are in attendance, the usual reason for reduced speed requirements.

My condolences to the gent’s family.

Whilst I also believe that the concrete barriers are creating a danger, I think the real danger is the speed that road users take on this road. That being said, the speeding of motorists is probably the reason these barriers have been installed temporarily to keep the roadworkers from harm – that I believe is more important.

Nightshade said :

Gerry-Built said :

There’s A lot To be said for waiting for a safe gap…

All the traffic going to and from West MacGregor ensures that safe gaps are increasingly few and far between on this part of Southern Cross Drive. I find it pretty hard to turn right out of Beaurepaire Cres onto Southern Cross Drive now, and don’t even try it in busy times. The people coming out of Florey Drive have even more east-bound traffic to contend with and grab whatever chance they can. Combined with the concrete barriers obstructing people’s view of the Florey Drive intersection, it’s not surprising this happened.

True but not at 7:30am on a Saturday morning!

Deckard said :

Jethro said :

Sigh.
Crashes happen on this stretch of road on an almost weekly basis. It beggars belief that funding cannot be found to properly fix it.

Agreed. The government has wasted its speed cameras in places they’re not needed while this intersection has been neglected for years. The speed limit through there is 40km/h at the moment due to the roadworks. Even so, with all the concrete barriers limiting vision it’s not surprising something sad like this has happened.

Agree with the sentiment and I was surprised to come through this afternoon to see the roadworks speed limit was covered and the normal 60km/h in place. This is one road works where it needs 40km/h 24/7 and policed heavily unlike some others around town (ie when they were doing the Kings Ave overpass). The bad thing with this one is cars turning left out of Florey drive, where once they had their own lane at present they need to pull out into the main through lane, so cars coming the other way need to be going slower and look out for someone doing something silly or not realising they no longer have their own lane.

I also reckon one lane should be blocked from the top of the hill heading west and the 40km/h started there. It has always been a race to get to the merge near the tennis courts, but is much worse now with people racing down to find cars slowing to 40km/h as they should. Putting the merge further up takes away the urge to race to get in front at the most critical point which is smack bang in the roadworks zone.

Anyway just another classic example of the inconstancies with ACT roadworks zones.

As for this accident doubt the barriers had much effect as the road towards the west is very visible from the turn out of Florey Drive. Seems just like most of the other accidents in the past that have made this such a bad intersection rather than something related to the roadworks.

“This is the third fatality on ACT roads this year.”

…. and the third in almost as many weeks. I was worried the “no fatalities in 12 months” announcement (http://the-riotact.com/a-year-without-road-fatalities/69033) would jinx everything.

Being a southsider, I’m not familiar with this intersection.

However, a look at Nearmap shows a similar layout to the Yamba Drive/Launceston/Wisdom St arrangement in Woden, where traffic lights have controlled the traffic for eons.

Why on earth has money been put into the point to point cameras when a really black spot like Southern Cross/Starke/Florey Drive has been permitted to continue creating mayhem for a similar period? The RA has been supplied with massive comment on these intersections over the years.

As a stop gap, as it seems road barriers are creating additional danger (fatal?), why not at least set up temporary traffic lights until the real ones are operational?

In this age of OHS, was any consideration given to the introduction of additional hazards during these works?

This should not have happened.

I went past the intersection earlier on, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a roadworks truck involved – it looked like a small delivery truck (ie, your basic white cab, with a white aluminum box on the back).

The truck ended up on its side off the other side of the road, facing westbound – so it’s managed to do a 180, and tip over. I’d be surprised if it was actually doing 40 at the time, and as others have mentioned, visibility at an already bad intersection has gotten worse with all of the concrete barriers during the roadworks.

I think there’s a pretty good case for putting in temporary traffic lights during the roadworks. Doing this may actually show our planners whether just putting lights on the Florey Drive intersection and doing nothing at Starke St will make Starke St worse too. At the least, they may help to avoid another person losing their life there.

wildturkeycanoe3:28 pm 19 May 12

Well, I thought this intersection was a 40km/h roadworks zone right now, so it amazes me how an accident could happen resulting in a fatality at this speed. I have noticed though that very few actually obey the limit here, now and before the work started. Sad for the family, I hope this gets some visual testament so that others will slow down and think of the consequences of their actions.

Gerry-Built said :

There’s A lot To be said for waiting for a safe gap…

All the traffic going to and from West MacGregor ensures that safe gaps are increasingly few and far between on this part of Southern Cross Drive. I find it pretty hard to turn right out of Beaurepaire Cres onto Southern Cross Drive now, and don’t even try it in busy times. The people coming out of Florey Drive have even more east-bound traffic to contend with and grab whatever chance they can. Combined with the concrete barriers obstructing people’s view of the Florey Drive intersection, it’s not surprising this happened.

…of course; that intersection as bad at the best of times. With the roadworks currently happening there – it is just that much worse. I noticed visibility is down considerably with the concrete barriers lining the insides of the intersection ATM (and presumably the sight-lines for approaching the intersection, therefore.

There’s A lot To be said for waiting for a safe gap…

Jethro said :

Sigh.
Crashes happen on this stretch of road on an almost weekly basis. It beggars belief that funding cannot be found to properly fix it.

Agreed. The government has wasted its speed cameras in places they’re not needed while this intersection has been neglected for years. The speed limit through there is 40km/h at the moment due to the roadworks. Even so, with all the concrete barriers limiting vision it’s not surprising something sad like this has happened.

“Crashes happen on this stretch of road on an almost weekly basis”
Mostly because of the douche bags that ignore the posted speed limit on this road. This accounts for about 75% of the users of that road.

Sigh.

I know that this intersection is in the process of getting lights, but until the government can actually find the money to fix the Starke St intersection a couple hundred metres down the road, this area will continue to have serious collisions.

Crashes happen on this stretch of road on an almost weekly basis. It beggars belief that funding cannot be found to properly fix it.

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