By Callum Ludwig
A multi-vehicle collision shut down the notorious stretch of the Warburton Highway in Seville East on Sunday 29 September.
Eight CFA units were called out to the scene at around 5.10pm.
A CFA spokesperson confirmed that CFA units responded from Wandin and Seville while Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria were also on scene. Lilydale SES were also later required to provide assistance.
Seville CFA Captain Andrew Butler said on arrival crews found three cars, two of which were severely damaged.
“There was an occupant trapped in one of the vehicles, and that was originally called through as two persons trapped, but it ended up being one person trapped so we had Wandin CFA’s and Lilydale SES’ rescue teams come up and give us a hand,” he said.
“The point was that Wandin’s rescue team had a second job in Yellingbo at the same time, so the idea was to get Lilydale SES rescue on the way as well so we had the appropriate crews, alongside VicPol and ambulances on scene as well, so it was quite a big incident.”
The incident occurred at the intersection of the Warburton Highway with Sunnyside Road, a hotspot for incidents in recent years.
Mr Butler said the safety systems in the cars involved definitely saved lives in this instance.
“The impact was very high speed and effectively head-on, what’s happened is that a car’s come up behind another car that was turning right, they haven’t seen that it was stopped and turning right and they’ve clipped the back of it and it shot them straight into a head-on collision with the car coming up the hill the other way,” he said.
“You would assume that they’d both be travelling at about 80km an hour, and a head-on 80km/h in both directions is a severe impact, so you’ve been very lucky to be alive after that one,”
“We had all four appliances out there, Wandin had two appliances there, VicPol probably had four crews, there were two ambulances and the highway was shut, there were diversions and things that police had to look after.”
An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson confirmed a man in his 70s was taken to Maroondah Hospital in a stable condition with minor upper body injuries.
Mr Butler said it’s yet another incident at this site, which is becoming quite notorious.
I’m sure you used all this, but we can’t get in trouble obviously, we say too much, but the wording on our Facebook post was around the fact that it’s yet another incident at that site, the corner of Sunnyside Road and Ordon Highway is really becoming notorious for incidents.
“It is from Douthie Road to Sunnyside Road and down to Joyce Road that we always see problems because what we have is we have turning lanes that are also overtaking lanes, and then at certain times of the day lighting’s an issue with the sun going down,” he said.
“It’s very frustrating for us to keep attending scenes like this and see that absolutely nothing has changed on the road in all the time that we’ve been attending these incidents.”
Another serious incident involving a truck occurred near Douthie Road in 2022 and a VicRoads investigation in 2019 found there were 17 separate accidents between 2014 and 2019 on the stretch of the Warburton Highway between the Douthie Road and Old Warburton Highway intersections.
The incident was deemed under control at 5.33pm and safe at 6.23pm.
Evelyn MP Bridget Vallence has also been a passionate advocate for upgrades on the road, including announcing a pledge to implement safer turning lanes among other upgrades if the Victorian Liberals had’ve been successful in the 2022 State Election.
Ms Vallence said it’s awful to hear of more accidents on Yarra Valley roads including a fatality and her thoughts are with the people and families involved as well as our emergency first responders.
“Together with our community and in Parliament, I’ve repeatedly called on the state government to fund upgrades to the Warburton Highway at Seville East given they have data that proves how dangerous it is but have so far failed to act,” she said.
“It’s simply unacceptable that VicRoads were unable to attend the accident last week to assist with signage or cleaning oil and debris, leaving it to volunteers, and is just more evidence of the impacts of the government’s budget cuts,”
“No more excuses, the government must stop turning a blind eye and fix the dangerous Warburton Highway in Seville East as a priority.”
A question asked in Parliament by Ms Vallence in March this year about the stretch of highway in Seville East by Minister for Roads and Road Safety Melissa Horne.
“While DTP [Department of Transport and Planning] has advised there are no plans to implement changes at this location, feedback received will be considered as part of DTP’s management of Victoria’s road network,” Ms Horne’s response said.
