11 March 2010

Road Fatality on Kuringa Drive, Spence.

| Mick
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Sad news about a crash on Kuringa Drive just after 4am this morning.

Seems that the driver strayed onto the north-bound lane and slammed into another vehicle. (2 cars on the road at 4am? Unlucky)

From what I’ve heard, the crash was up near the Barton Highway turnoff.

Over-tired perhaps?

It brings the road toll for the year to 4.

ABC News story here

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grumpyrhonda9:00 pm 28 Mar 10

bd84 said :

Another more than likely drunk moron doing a rediculous speed and killing himself, I feel sorry for the 18yr old girl driving the other car.

The Canberra Times actually did some local news updates today:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/man-40-killed-in-spence-headon/1773654.aspx

I also feel sorry for the 18 year old driver. I visited her in hospital today. She is incredibly lucky to be alive considering she had a punctured lung and broke every bone in her face. They hope to have the trachea out tomorrow and she might be home in the next week.
Her life and her family’s life will never be the same again due to a speeding person who crossed to the wrong side of the road.

I would like to see 50 in suburbs and then 80, 100 on other roads, and 130 on 4 lane free ways like the Hume with enforcement of the keep left rule out of the fast lane.

Helen said :

JC said :

I drive along Kuringa Dr on a regular basis, and there are actually 3 speed limits – 60km/h between Tillyard Dr and Kingsford Smith Dr, 70km/h from Kingsford Smith Dr to just east of Owen Dixon Dr, and then 80km/h from there to the Barton Hwy intersection.

Thats right it changed about 5 years ago. But the point was where the accident was, was on the good stretch which is 80km/h and should be 80km/h.

troll-sniffer said :

This series of arguments above highlights everything that is wrong with the current ACT roads administration of speed limits.

I think it’s time we the citizens of Canberra let this guvmnt know that the current plethora of speed zones and the consequent confusion by a large percentage of the population about what speed they should be doing on any section of roadway is not good enough.

Why oh why can’t we just have a three tire system of speeds:

50km/hr in single lane and some dual lane suburban streets.
80 km/hr on non-suburban single lane roads and dual carriageways.
100km/hr on designated open roads and freeways.

Because some roads need lower speed limits for what ever reason.

What your talking about though is what happens in the UK. In most area’s there are no speed limit signs, or just the sign of a black circle with a line through it. Basically it was up to the driver to determine the road type and apply the speed limit. Only where the limit was for some reason lower than the default for that type of road do you see signs, which surprisingly were not much bigger than a 20c coin, well that hows they looked!

I hated when I lived there because that lack of signs on default limit roads (in towns in particular) mean I was always worried that I may have missed a sign giving a lower limit. I also found my SATNAV to not be 100% accurate in showing what the true limit was for the road.

damien haas said :

troll-sniffer said :

Why oh why can’t we just have a three tire system of speeds:

50km/hr in single lane and some dual lane suburban streets.
80 km/hr on non-suburban single lane roads and dual carriageways.
100km/hr on designated open roads and freeways.

The Greens have a Molonglo discussion paper going around at present which proposes a 30KMH speed limit for Molonglo ‘as this is now a recognised international standard’.

30mph maybe, which oh works out to be just shy of 50km/h which is our ‘default’ speed limit in built up area’s.

My wife travels this road daily and complained some years back to Mary Potter about its “dangerousness”.

Some months later she received a response which said amongst other things, that Kuringa Dr was 176th on the blackspot list and didn’t warrant any precedence for improvmemt.

I often wondered about this and concluded that people had to drive carefully because of the rotten nature of the road. But in the wee hours of the morning, guess that doesn’t apply.

It has always been a strange bit of road. In the mid to late 70’s the bit northbound after the turnoff to Spence was a couple of hundred metres of very rough dirt (part of the old charnwood rd I think).

Then you alway slowed down as you came under the stock bridge.

After the last bit was tarred there was something strange about the corner – camber maybe – or possibly just a fairly sharp turn after being on the highway.

Kuringa Dr is easily one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Belconnen

No, people just won’t drive to conditions or go faster than their driving abilities allow. Yeah, it’s slightly windy but seriously, dangerous?

I think that our statements go hand in hand. Kuringa Dr is dangerous for precisely the reasons you state – people don’t drive to conditions, won’t follow speed limits, etc – and due to the nature of this particular road, there are quite often horrible consequences.

You’ll note that I added the qualifier “in Belconnen” – across a larger area, Kuringa Dr is not really that bad. But when you add all the variables together it is quite a dangerous road, with accidents like this as evidence.

How about 40km/h in suburban streets, 60km/h in suburban feeders, 80km/h on dual lane roads, 100km/h highway and 120+km/h freeway?

Another issue that could be brought up is the fact that the section of road where the accident occurred was originally designed to be dual carriageway, hence why there is all that space where the trucks always park.

troll-sniffer said :

Why oh why can’t we just have a three tire system of speeds:

50km/hr in single lane and some dual lane suburban streets.
80 km/hr on non-suburban single lane roads and dual carriageways.
100km/hr on designated open roads and freeways.

The Greens have a Molonglo discussion paper going around at present which proposes a 30KMH speed limit for Molonglo ‘as this is now a recognised international standard’.

eyeLikeCarrots1:36 pm 12 Mar 10

Kuringa Dr is easily one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Belconnen

No, people just won’t drive to conditions or go faster than their driving abilities allow. Yeah, it’s slightly windy but seriously, dangerous?

Thumper wins…

Drive to the conditions. If the conditions include some retard (yep… arrogant retard even!) who wants to save 11 seconds of a journey, find a suitable place to pull over and let them speed ahead and kill themselves (or some poor innocent bugger).

I live near where Tillyard DR becomes Kuringa DR and let me tell you: that road is dangerous. Its not dangerous because of construction, curves etc – its dangerous because people seem to fly through there. I’ve asked the police SO MANY TIMES to put speed vans there, yes I’m sick of the noise but its mainly because it is so dangerous. The road along there is 60km/h (accident happened in the 80Km/h section) and 60km/h is really the maximum you can do through there if its dry. About 40km/h in the wet as some stupid idiot found out the other day when he spun out coming around the corner in the rain.
Anyway, end rant. Please if anyone knows how to get the cops to monitor speeds better through there let us all know. Its a miracle not more people get killed on this road.

troll-sniffer12:23 pm 12 Mar 10

This series of arguments above highlights everything that is wrong with the current ACT roads administration of speed limits.

I think it’s time we the citizens of Canberra let this guvmnt know that the current plethora of speed zones and the consequent confusion by a large percentage of the population about what speed they should be doing on any section of roadway is not good enough.

Why oh why can’t we just have a three tire system of speeds:

50km/hr in single lane and some dual lane suburban streets.
80 km/hr on non-suburban single lane roads and dual carriageways.
100km/hr on designated open roads and freeways.

With the money saved on thousands of speed signs, they could put in proper school zone signage and lights that would be a lot safer than the current easy to miss system.

Even dopey bogans and expectant mothers would then know by default roughly what limit they should be doing. If there are driveways off the road, it’s 50km/hr. If not chances are it’s 80km/hr unless you’re on a highway or Tuggeranong Parkway at 100km/hr.

I would gladly give up the often short stretches of 60 and 70 km/hr roads for the introduction of sanity in our speed limits.

Auckland is a prime example of how such a system would work, they basically have a blanket 50km/hr in all residential areas and 80km/hr, and it’s not that hard to get used to travelling at 50km/hr everywhere you see driveways. Some trips take three of four minutes longer than they would if sections were made 60 and 70 km/hr but no-one minds, for they don’t have to constantly scrutinise the roadsides for untold numbers of speed signs.

JC said:

It is 70km/h on the bit west of Kingsford Smith Drive

It actually drops to 60km/h here and continues all the way tin Tillyard.

Where the sign says “Belconnen”, that’s where the speed changes (back to 70km/h for southbound and up to 80km/h for northbound)

The crash happened just north of the sign, so technically, the speed limit was 80km/h.

I think the problem is that people hug the white line when going round that curve. All you need is 2 cars huggomg the white line in opposite directions, and you’ll have a head on.

JC said :

vg said :

Actually its a 70 zone

Unless it has recently changed the end where the accident was is actually an 80km/h zone. It is 70km/h on the bit west of Kingsford Smith Drive.

I drive along Kuringa Dr on a regular basis, and there are actually 3 speed limits – 60km/h between Tillyard Dr and Kingsford Smith Dr, 70km/h from Kingsford Smith Dr to just east of Owen Dixon Dr, and then 80km/h from there to the Barton Hwy intersection.

Kuringa Dr is easily one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Belconnen. It’s sad to say, but I wasn’t at all surprised to see that another person had died on this road. As Spectra mentioned above, it is very rare to be on that road with other people doing the correct speed limit. The signs are clear enough but either people don’t see them or don’t care. As a result, if you do the speed limit, you usually get tailgated in one part and held up in another.

Power Protect10:09 am 12 Mar 10

Spectra said :

I presume you must be one of the people who take such delight in holding me up on that stretch.

The entire length of Kuringa Dr is 3.2km

3.2km @ 70kph = 164 seconds
3.2km @ 80kph = 144 seconds

georgesgenitals6:52 am 12 Mar 10

There’s all sorts of reasons this could have happened, although at that time of the morning I be suspecting either alcohol/drugs or fatigue, although it could just as easily have been a simple mistake.

Best to just let the police do their thing.

vg said :

Actually its a 70 zone

Unless it has recently changed the end where the accident was is actually an 80km/h zone. It is 70km/h on the bit west of Kingsford Smith Drive.

Actually its a 70 zone

No. It’s not. The part of the road where the accident happened is an 80 zone. I promise you. I drive that road twice a day, have passed speed cameras on it multiple times, and I’m absolutely, 100%, completely positive the limit from just north of Owen Dixon to the Barton Highway is 80. Going northbound there is only one sign to indicate this, and it’s on the right hand side of the road, on a light pole, but it’s most definitely there.

I presume you must be one of the people who take such delight in holding me up on that stretch.

I’ve never thought of it as an odd bit of road, but people do some odd things on it’s, vastly differing speeds not the least of them.

Always sad when such a random accident happens.

Another more than likely drunk moron doing a rediculous speed and killing himself, I feel sorry for the 18yr old girl driving the other car.

The Canberra Times actually did some local news updates today:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/man-40-killed-in-spence-headon/1773654.aspx

Actually its a 70 zone

It occurred just north of Owen Dixon Drive, just south of the farm overpass.

I’ll grant that it’s a mildly unusual section of road, but I’ve never understood why so many people (relatively speaking) seem to find it so difficult to navigate safely, or, indeed to stick to the speed limit in either direction. It’s an 80km/h zone, but half the people on it are trying to go 100 and the other half refuse to go above 60 (which infuriates the hell out of the half of us who want to actually go 80). Yes, I know that’s three halves. Shut up.

If it is on the Barton Highway end then that is the better part of the road, no worse than any other single lane section of road in the ACT so a bit surprising. The Fraser end, well a different story. Never understood why that part has never been straightened out. If you look at the google map link posted above it wouldn’t be that hard, as the road is more or less straight the whole way, except for a little kink in the middle and a sweep near Kingsford Smith drive.. Knock down a couple of tree’s and lay some new tar.

The perfect solution though would be to rebuilt west of Kingsford Smith drive, then keep going past Tillyard drive and connect with Douglas Waterhouse drive in Dunlop and maybe provide a connection to Shakespeare drive in Fraser. With Dunlop now almost fully developed a better link, bypassing the centre of the suburbs is needed.

Not a surprise in one sense. It is a strange section of road.

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