LAST month, the Strathmerton tragedy took the lives of five people, prompting Kim O’Keeffe, Member for Shepparton, to raise concerns about the dangerous intersection of Labuan Road and Murray Valley Highway in Parliament.
Ms O’Keeffe emphasised the intersection’s bad design, as well as the second fatal collision there in just over a year, and three other crashes in the past two years. She urged Roads and Road Safety Minister, Melissa Horne, to take immediate and urgent action to improve the intersection before another life is lost.
“This is a very dangerous, very deadly intersection – this was the second fatal collision here in just over a year,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“It is badly designed, and three other crashes in the past two years, on top of the two fatal incidents, prove that.”
The statistics for road fatalities in regional and rural Victoria are also alarming, with TAC figures for this year showing that 64.2 percent of the state’s road fatalities occurred on regional and rural roads, even though regional Victoria represents only 25 percent of the state’s population. Ms O’Keeffe is calling for additional funds to repair Victoria’s dilapidated regional roads networks and fix unsafe intersections, as well as emphasising the need to prioritise road safety to avoid future tragedies.
“Road trauma causes pain and damage for years, even generations, beyond the crash itself and we need to do whatever we can to avoid a repeat of something,” she said.
“If this intersection is not improved now, it is only a matter of when, not if, there will be another bad smash and maybe more lives lost.”
