Opinion: Underpass Measure-Up

FOLLOWING the article Ambulances Stopped Yesterday a reader asked on the scone.com.au Facebook page why the two underpasses in Scone were not being utilised by emergency services.

Elizabeth Flaherty, editor.

The solution is not proposed as an alternative to a bypass or overpass, but as a temporary measure so that emergency services are not kept waiting for five minutes as coal trains roll by.

One underpass is a couple of kilometres south of the township, so unviable for emergency services, but the other is on the fenceline of the golf course and White Park, with the nearest street on the other side of the tracks being Smith Street.

Bill Howey recalls many years ago the underpass had been raised as a possible solution for emergency services, but no resolution was reached.

We’ve emailed the photos of the underpass to local police, ambulance and the ARTC to assess the viability of the underpass in emergencies.

There are many factors that need to be considered to work out if the underpass may be viable, such as if it is accessible in wet weather, if it would be quicker to wait for five minutes for a train, if travelling down the golf course would be possible for all patients, but the main hurdle probably rests with vandals obstructing access.

Looking east through the underpass from the Scone golf course access.

There are locked gates at White Park, the golf course and the Bill Rose complex because vandals have consistently driven in and ripped up the grounds.

Local vandals also take the time to smash through the gates of the emergency level crossings at the saleyards, five minutes of fun for them that means five minutes of waiting for critically ill patients.

Their actions now directly impact on if we can use the underpass in emergencies, because in all scenarios emergencies services need to work out how they can prevent access for idiots, while allowing quick access for critically ill patients in the back of our ambulances.

Having keys to gates will not work, especially for our ambulance.

Our ambulance need to be flexible, when our Scone cars are taking patients to Maitland we are covered by ambulance from Murrurundi, Muswellbrook and other nearby towns.

It is a system that works for ambulance coverage, but it is not realistic for every ambulance which may need to cross the New England level rail crossing to have a set of keys for the emergency level crossings at the saleyards or Kingdon Street, which is why they need to keep those keys at the ambulance station.

Locked gates to the rail corridor at the end of Smith Street, leading to the underpass.

So, having locks on the gates that lead to the underpass would also not work.

Perhaps they could implement pin codes on the access gates, I’m not sure how much they cost, but even if they are worth implementing, our emergency services will then need to get out of their vehicles, enter the pin code and wait for the gates to open and close them behind them, twice on their way to the hospital.

When you start calculating the time involved to gain access and weigh it against waiting five minutes for the train you wonder if it is viable.

While the ARTC and our emergency services are keen to look at the option, it is a shame it may be local vandals not coal trains that cost a life.

Elizabeth Flaherty
Editor of scone.com.au