Pedestrian Death Waiting to Happen

FOR the fourth time in less than 12 months a driver has lost control, hit a light pole and mounted the footpath in  front of Scone Toyota.

Ambulance attended on Monday, but no one was seriously injured.

On Monday at approximately 4:30 pm a young driver in a Ford FG Falcon was the latest person to lose control on the corner.

The same light pole has been replaced on three occasions and on another occasion needed to be stabilised.

Witnesses say the driver who lost control on Monday claimed he had been adhering to the speed limit, but after hitting the light post his car spun on the road, again mounted the curb and hit the cement blocks of the Toyota car yard before coming to rest on the footpath.

Scone Toyota have been open for less than twelve months and in that time there have been four incidents with the third one being only a few weeks ago.

Jake Gorst points to the spot where four cars have lost control, crashed into a light pole and careered onto the footpath in less than 12 months.

Staff arrived for work one Saturday morning to find smashed glass covering the drive way and while the light post did not need to be replaced, it did need work to be stabilised.

One staff member who was at the scene of a fatal accident several years ago said the drivers did not seem to realise how the accidents affected people.

“When I heard the smash on Monday it really frightened me, I’ve seen what can happen when drivers lose control; I haven’t slept properly since Monday and they just don’t realise how it can affect people,” she said.

The Roads and Maritime Services has already identified the intersection of Kingdon Street and Kelly Street as a black spot and it includes the area in front of Toyota.

Assessing the damage to the car after it hit the light post and careered out of control.

Anna Zycki, regional manager for Roads and Maritime Services Hunter Region, said it was important people reported traffic accidents to police so that the data is included in their safety studies.

“At this stage we are still working on some options for what a possible solution might be in that location, when those options have been completed we will talk to Upper Hunter Council to get their view on that and we expect that to happen by the end of May through to the end of June and after that we will then come out to the community to discuss options,” Ms Zycki said.

“We are still investigating at this stage looking at things like the road geometry, traffic volumes and the sorts of movements and accident history that we do have at that site and we will work up some concept designs that would support reducing the crash rate there,” she said.

Witnesses say the driver claimed he was not travelling above the speed limit.

“We look at obviously fatalities and injuries and we also get records on tow away crashes, we look at five years worth of crash data.

“We need to get formal advice from police on incidents, if they have been reported to police, even if police don’t attend, we get formal notification of those crashes as part of our data.

“People need to call the police assistance line to get an event number and when people do have crashes at particular intersections if they are ringing police and notifying them then that goes into the formal crash data and we can consider that as part of our crash investigations,” she said.

“We always encourage people to notify police of any crashes because of that very reason,” said Anna Zycki.

In terms of speeding Ms Zycki said there is a speed limit there which is a safe limit for that type of road environment, but if people were not adhering to the speed it was a matter for police to regulate.

While Upper Hunter Shire Council did not provide any detail on what they have done to raise safety concerns about the black spot or comment on their plans for the main street which include a round-about at the Kingdon Street intersection, they wanted to encourage the public to review their new town revitalisation plans which are on display until May 3.

In part of a statement issued to be accredited to a “Council spokesperson”, although the spokesperson was not identified said,”RMS is aware Council is awaiting the final outcome of the community consultation over the draft Masterplans, before making final recommendations to the RMS.”