This fatal crash in Police Road, Springvale, last week has renewed calls for VicRoads to act on residents’concerns. Picture by Keith Pakenham, CFA.By Shaun Inguanzo
A FOUR-CAR collision that killed a 33-year-old mother last week was ‘inevitable’, according to a Springvale resident who is lobbying for road safety improvements.
Josh Maher, 35, lives on Police Road, Springvale, just metres from where the collision happened on Wednesday, 20 September at 7.20pm.
Mr Maher told Star he hoped VicRoads would now act on residents’ concerns in the wake of the fatality.
A 33-year-old Endeavour Hills woman died shortly after the collision and a man in his early 30s is still in intensive care at the Alfred Hospital.
The Endeavour Hills woman’s six-month-old baby was rescued by a local teenager who pulled the baby from its dangling seat amid the threat of leaking petrol.
The baby is now recovering in the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Police from the Major Collision Investigation Unit are waiting to speak to the recovering man after witnesses reported a car travelling at high-speed along Police Road collided with one oncoming car before hitting the third and fourth cars.
The speed limit along that stretch of Police Road is 60km/h, Mr Maher said, with 40km/h school zones further down the road.
“Speed cameras are there from time to time but they don’t seem to be a deterrent for people exceeding the speed limit,” he said.
Mr Maher said his neighbours had ‘similar sentiments’ but VicRoads had failed to improve the road’s safety for motorists.
“I’ve made complaints to VicRoads in the past. I’ve got a stack of reference numbers, but someone from there just keeps saying that is the way it is,” he said.
Mr Maher said it was tragic it took a death to highlight the road’s threats.
Star contacted VicRoads for a response but did not receive one before going to print.
