By Bridget Vallence
Last week, our community confronted another dreadful day of serious road trauma on local roads.
Condolences to the family of the man who lost his life in Yellingbo.
My thoughts are also with families involved in another serious crash on Warburton Highway Seville East.
I thank, and am thinking of, all emergency first responders who attended both accidents.
Police, local CFA Brigades, Lilydale SES and ambulance paramedics experience traumatic scenes at accidents firsthand but do everything they can to help save lives, console residents, and clean-up in the aftermath.
I thank our emergency services for their tireless efforts, and I valued attending both Yarra Ranges Police Road Safety Forum and Yarra Valley Teenage Road Information Program (TRIP), with stark reminders of the ripple effect of road trauma.
Sadly, severe and traumatic accidents on Yarra Valley roads are not a new phenomenon.
It’s not good enough for the government to merely blame driver behaviour.
Certainly, this is a factor, and drivers must be careful, vigilant, and drive to road rules.
But a major factor, too, is inadequate road infrastructure, and our community is fed-up with Yarra Valley roads being neglected.
For example, the known dangerous stretch of Warburton Highway Seville East between Sunnyside and Peters Roads with a double crest, side roads, turning traffic, merging lanes, and school bus stops, is continually ignored by the Victorian Government despite consistent community campaigning, my raising the matter in Parliament repeatedly, and accident data demonstrating an upgrade could reduce road trauma risk.
Dangerous intersections, potholes, roadside camber issues and degradation, and a lack of safe turning lanes, expose infrastructure no longer fit-for-purpose.
The Labor Government will never admit its harsh budget cuts have severely stifled its ability to upgrade and fix roads, or that Yarra Valley roads are continually overlooked.
Last week saw the extraordinary revelation, resulting from a Victorian Liberals Nationals Freedom of Information request, of the Victorian Labor Government disgracefully siphoning off $1.6 million of federal Black Spot Program funding to pay bureaucrats and project overruns instead of spending it on roads.
Further, the Allan Government blames the condition of Victoria’s roads on “repeated flooding”, but roads are crumbling due to funding cuts and neglect.
Today’s roads maintenance budget is 16 percent lower than in 2020.
Now, the Labor Government plans to sell-off its government-owned road repairer and disband Rural Roads Victoria, as state debt soars to $188 billion.
After $41 billion cost blowouts on inner-city ‘Big Build’ projects, Yarra Valley roads and our community are paying the price for Labor’s financial incompetence.
No more neglect.
It’s time the government properly funds road safety upgrades in the Yarra Valley.
