By Mitchell Clarke
A petition to “fix” a notorious Princes Highway intersection is calling on VicRoads to take urgent action before a fatality occurs.
With the ring of steel removed and more traffic returning to the roads, motorists and truckies alike want immediate action taken to make the Tynong-North Road intersection safer.
Kevin Murphy, who runs a trucking company with wife Carolyn, created the petition after identifying a “desperate need” for action at the incident-plagued intersection.
Mr Murphy, who has had trucks using the intersection for over 20 years, said he’d seen countless near-misses, but it was a serious collision just weeks ago which drove the couple to take action.
One of the company’s trucks was hit in the right lane of the Princes Highway as it attempted to travel towards Melbourne.
Thankfully the driver wasn’t injured, but Mr Murphy fears he could one day lose one of his own.
“Drivers are constantly panicking and hitting the brakes and swerving when they see heavy vehicles enter the right lane after leaving the quarry,” he explained.
Truck drivers already play a game of Russian roulette when crossing traffic to reach the median strip. The danger remains as they attempt to turn into the right lane to head city bound.
With cars flying down the hill at 100km/h, Mr Murphy timed the number of seconds it took for an out-of-sight car to reach the intersection.
“From seeing nothing coming down the hill to turning into the right lane, it’s 10 seconds before a car is on top of you,” he explained.
“These trucks are loaded with 40 tonnes of rock. It takes a while to build up speed and we can’t get over to the left hand lane for a while.”
Liberal Narracan MP Gary Blackwood, who has a trucking background, joined the Murphys and experienced truck driver Dave Whitty, in reissuing calls for VicRoads to carry out a permanent fix.
While an overpass at Gumbuya World is the desired solution, Mr Blackwood doubts the costly project would come to fruition. The overpass at Sand Road came at a cost of about $33 million.
Other short-term solutions, including speed reductions, more signage or flashing lights, have been flagged.
But the idea of an added service road between Tynong North Road and Fogarty Road on the north side of the highway could provide some immediate relief.
“It’s probably the cheapest option. You’d be looking at $1 million for it to be built but it could work,” Mr Blackwood said.
“Realistically the only other option is the overpass, so you either take the cheap option and spend a million or two on a short term fix, or you spend $60 million on an overpass which would be much better.”
With the townships of Drouin and Warragul set to reach a combined population of 100,000 in the next 15 years, Mr Blackwood said it was crucial for the infrastructure to reflect the area’s growth.
“That quarry has at least 25 years more life in it and the traffic is only going to increase with more people living out this way,” he said.
“We either fix the problems now and save a life or we lose a life and wait to fix it. We don’t want that second option.”
VicRoads was contacted for comment.
