A WA community says it will fight for action to fix a black spot on the road that has claimed six lives in so many years.
Key points:
- There have been six deaths in six years on a stretch of road from Albany to Narrikup
- The widow of an accident victim wants a redesign and a reduction in the speed limit on this stretch
- The Minister of Transport supports Main Roads’ decision not to lower the speed limit
Residents of the small town in the Great South of Narrikup have been left to pick up the pieces after a series of fatal and serious accidents on the stretch of the Albany Highway.
Despite two independent audit reports recommending changes to the 1.3km section, which includes five intersections and white double lanes, Main Roads WA has taken no action.
The speed limit of the section is 110 km / h.
Campaigners include Joan Baily, who lost her husband for 48 years, Jim, when her vehicle was hit by a road train at the site in 2020.
The 75-year-old volunteer firefighter died instantly, but the crash waves of the crash have continued to spread throughout the community.
A small town in southern WA wants action to stop a series of fatalities on a stretch of Albany Highway. (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)
Crash Widow wants changes
Mrs. Baily wanted the highway to be redesigned and traffic to slow down.
“Jim was killed three days before Christmas 2020. In the previous 10 years, the first audit recommended that something be done on the Albany road in the Narrikup region,” he said.
“Nothing has been done since that audit.”
Baily said there were 29 accidents in the Narrikup section of the Albany Highway in the past decade, with six fatalities.
“I don’t think the bureaucrats are aware … of the human effects of this [one accident] has, “he said.
“I feel furious because the bureaucratic impression is that it’s a safe stretch of road.”
Joan Baily and Kate Harriss at the intersection where Joan’s husband, Jim, died in an accident in 2020. (ABC Great Southern: Mark Bennett)
Kate Harriss, a member of Farmer and Narrikup Road Safety Group, said the latest audit recommended lowering the speed limit to 90 miles per hour on the 1.3-mile stretch that runs through the city.
“Main Roads are opposed to doing so. But they have not generated any engineering solution,” he said.
“If they are unwilling to slow down, they must provide secure access inside and outside these intersections.”
“We’re not backing down”
Tony Poad runs the Narrikup Country Store and has heard horror stories about accidents almost every week on the short stretch of the Albany Highway south of Mount Barker.
“I start hearing more and more stories once I open the store,” he said.
“I started the request and started the ball. We are … trying to fix this.
“We’re not going backwards and we’re not going to let it go. We’re going to keep pushing and it’s going to be louder and louder.”
But the highway speed zoning branch ruled out the auditor’s urgent recommendations to reduce the speed limit.
He said drivers would ignore signals to slow down.
A Main Roads survey showed that traffic averaged 113 km / h after Narrikup.
The minister says 110 km / h is adequate
Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has backed Main Roads’ decision to keep the speed limit at 110km / h.
WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has backed her department’s response to the motorway section.
In a statement to the ABC, Ms Saffioti said Main Roads had determined that 110km / h was still suitable for this stretch of the Albany motorway.
Saffioti said the road conditions and surroundings were not significantly different from other areas of the highway where the speed limit was 110 km / h.
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