By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Ranges Council has rejected calls from residents of Lowes and Settlement roads in Yarra Junction for speed humps to slow motorists on what they claim is a potential death trap.
The council may, however, be prepared to look at other measures.
Lowes Road resident Wally Bickerton said a massive increase of traffic on the narrow roads, coupled with an elbow bend at the Settlement/Railway roads intersection, has made life a nightmare for local residents who have to deal regularly with collisions or near-misses.
Settlement Road and Railway Road are used as an alternative to the Warburton Highway by locals and tourists.
‘Over the years the traffic has been increasing more and more and so have the crashes,’ he said.
‘There was another one last night and it’s only a matter of time before there is a fatality,’ he said.
‘The car came around the bad elbow corner, not necessarily doing over the 80 kilometre speed limit, but he lost it and it took him four attempts to right the vehicle before he hit the gutters and went into the drain,’ Mr Bickerton said.
Another resident who didn’t want to be named said she has had enough of cars coming through her fence after misjudging the same corner.
‘We have had three accidents in the last two weeks and often they end up through our fence,’ she said.
‘It is only a matter of time before someone waiting to cross at the walking track gets hit because that’s where the cars run off,’ she added.
She believes speed is the problem and while supporting Mr Bickerton’s call for speed humps she would also like to see the speed limit reduced from 80km/h to 70km/h.
The Lowes Road intersection with Settlement Road is also a concern and Mr Bickerton is calling for the intersection to be upgraded.
‘I witness near misses almost every day with impatient motorists overtaking at the intersection.
‘The intersection is not a cross road, it is slightly misaligned and people don’t know who has right of way. It needs a stop sign on one of the approaches and it needs an upgrade of the corners,’ he said.
Yarra Ranges civil development services acting manager Douglass Dickins told the Mail speed humps would not be installed on a rural type road.
‘The council would, however, consider rumble strips on the lead-up to the bend and/or splitter islands to better delineate the intersection and the crossing,’ he said.
Mr Dickins said further investigation would be required to scope and cost any improvements and that the works would then need to be referred to the 2011/12 capital expenditure program.
In relation to Lowes Road, he said similar improvements may be considered at that intersection to those proposed for the Railway and Station roads works expected to commence within the next couple of months.
‘The road reserve width at this intersection is significantly less however, making it more difficult to achieve a solution.’
