`We don’t want a death’

STRATHFIELDSAYE parents don’t want a fatality on Strathfieldsaye Road to prove their case for the need for a safer intersection.Residents want the five point junction with Tannery lane, which often caters for hundreds of student families at the two peak periods of day to be converted into a roundabout to slow traffic down.Concerned residents say the 60 kmh speed limit for the crest of Strathfieldsaye Road is too fast as vehicles attempting to enter or cross the road cannot see approaching traffic.The most recent accident at the tricky intersection occurred last Tuesday just before 9 am and involved a collision between two cars, one containing a mother and her two children.President of the Strathfieldsaye Primary School Parent’s Club Kim Mayer said that near misses occurred everyday and many minor accidents were not reported to police so were not added to the roads safety record.‘‘In this instance, the method of determining which intersections will receive upgrades would lead to a child’s death,’’ she said ‘‘We’ve been trying to do something about this intersection for ages.‘‘Basically, the growth of the community is outstripping the safety of the infrastructure.’’She said Strathfieldsaye Primary School had 520 pupils and was the second largest school in Bendigo, and that hundreds more students from St Francis in the Fields made the intersection a major hub at peak school times.‘‘It is 60 kmh, but lets face it, how many people don’t slow down to that speed?,’’ she said.‘‘Then there is driver carelessness, the fact is that many people… just aren’t thinking during that rush period we call three thirty-itis.’’Parents want the speed limit reduced to 40 kmh at peak school times with appropriate warnings signs as an interim measure to avoid worse accidents at a notoriously tricky intersection she said.VicRoads Regional Manager for Northern Region Mal Kersting explained if there were concerns about a particular section of road then an inspection and assessment would go ahead.‘‘We look at things like the safety record of an area (and) accounts of crashes and casualties,’’ he said.‘‘If there have been crashes, it gives us a guide to the nature of the crashes and the nature of what improvements need to be made.’’