Kim OKeeffe the member for Shepparton District spoke in Parliament on Wednesday calling for the Minister for Roads and Road safety Melissa Horne MP to urgently address the unsafe intersection at Laubuan Road and the Murray Valley Hwy Strathmerton in which a major accident occurred on April 20th.
Tragically 5 lives have been lost at this intersection and my sincere sympathy and condolences go to the families of the deceased and my thoughts are with them, the truck driver, the emergency respondents and the community, as we all deal with this horrific accident and enormous loss, said Ms O’Keeffe.
This is a very dangerous and unsafe intersection. There is a rise from an old railway line a very short distance before you get to the intersection which has a giveway sign. It does not allow vehicles enough warning or time to slow down. There has been 4 other accidents at the intersection since 2021 and more will happen and more lives lost if this intersection is not upgraded.
More people are losing their lives on regional roads and the statistics are alarming with TAC Road Safety statistics for 2023 shows 64.2% of all fatalities have occurred on regional and rural roads. Regional Victoria represents 25% of the States population. We also know that more people are travelling to Regional Victoria. Our roads must be to a safe standard or more lives will be lost.
Ms OKeeffe said the Government must urgently inject additional funds into the upcoming budget to repair Victoria’s dilapidated unsafe crumbling regional roads network and to fix unsafe intersections.
Road trauma has a profound and lasting devastating impact and we need to do whatever we can to avoid these tragic road accidents from happening.