‘Spaghetti junction’ in top three

By Shaun Inguanzo
SPRINGVALE’S ‘spaghetti junction’ has again rated as one of the worst crash sites in Victoria.
Springvale Road’s intersection with the Princes Highway ranked third on the Royal Automotive Club of Victoria’s (RACV) crash site study for collisions during the 2005-06 financial year.
The intersection – known by locals as ‘spaghetti junction’ because of its complex layout – recorded 73 crashes over 12 months, with 70 per cent involving a rear-end collision.
Springvale resident Reg Pitt, 67, told Star in April that the intersection was fraught with danger, even for pedestrians attempting to cross.
This week he said he was not surprised to see spaghetti junction ranking high on Victoria’s worst crash site list.
“You see, the lights might be green, and as they change to amber someone in front of the traffic flow might do the right thing and stop,” he said.
“But the car behind, because they are trying to get through the lights, runs into the back of them.”
Mr Pitt said the last time he recalled the road being upgraded was in the early 1980s.
VicRoads told Star it was investigating the RACV results before commenting specifically on the junction.
But south east region manager Steve Brown said VicRoads was “committed to maintaining a safe and efficient road network”.
“The process used by VicRoads to consider sites for upgrade takes into account criteria such as traffic volumes, the types of vehicles using the routes, surrounding land usage and crash data,” he said.