ONGOING road issues such as the Raywood-Elmore Road and a pedestrian crossing at Elmore has contributed to central Victoria’s worst road toll in years, City of Greater Bendigo Councillor James Williams says.
Cr Williams wrote on a social media site: “Bendigo’s worst road toll in years and they wonder why we raise issues like the Raywood-Elmore road and a pedestrian crossing at Elmore”.
Provisional road toll figures released last week showed more people died on central Victorian roads in 2012 than in any other region.
Cr Williams said VicRoads could do more to increase the safety of country roads around the region.
He said locals knew of the danger on the Raywood-Elmore Road, which he said needed widening and re-sealing in parts, but VicRoads did not consider it dangerous because many accidents went unreported.
“There are several near-misses and loads of accidents which go unreported and don’t go into official statistics,” he said. “I know of four recent times where there have been accidents or near-misses, which is why locals are frustrated.
“It’s recognised far and wide as being an unsafe road.”
He said Elmore’s pedestrian crossing on the Northern Highway near Elmore-Raywood Road also needed an upgrade.
“There’s more people using it, more highway traffic to Echuca and it’s on a congregation of three highways.
“But again, the close misses don’t get reported.”
A VicRoads spokesman said he was aware of community requests to upgrade the road and the pedestrian crossing, but both were not considered high priority.
He said traffic volumes recorded in Kamarooka showed that fewer than 200 vehicles per day were heading in either direction on the Elmore-Raywood Road and only one fatality had occurred in the past five years.
He also said VicRoads was unlikely to fund a proposal for a set of pedestrian lights in Elmore in the near future.