By Deanne Jeffers
SATURDAY marked the anniversary of the horrific crash at Kialla West Primary School, when a family sitting in their vehicle at the crossing was rear-ended by a truck travelling 80km/h during school pick-up.
Four years on, Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell, school council president Jamie Gilbert and Jane Sharp, the mother of the family who were injured, are still lobbying for safety improvements.
Last week, Ms Lovell and local Coalition candidates, Liberal’s Cheryl Hammer and Nationals’ Kim O’Keeffe, pledged $2M to go towards constructing an underpass if elected in November.
“We will build the underpass that has been desperately needed here for a number of years now,” said Ms Lovell.
“It’s not good enough that the government have not done anything to improve the safety at this intersection.”
Jane Sharp and daughter Addison, who was injured in the accident, welcomed the funding commitment.
“I’m glad someone is going to do something about this, it didn’t feel like anything was going to change while we were still here, so we are really happy with this decision.”
Ms Lovell said an underpass is the most practical improvement, as any overpass would need to be six metres high and present other logistic problems.
“The biggest challenge is getting a commitment for the money to solve the problem,” said Mr Gilbert.
“It will take some time, but certainly at the moment, there’s no way forward without a commitment to getting designs done and money behind the project.”
