by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A State Coroner investigating the death of a toddler on Stud Road, Dandenong North has recommended safer pedestrian access at the notorious black-spot.
The two-year-old boy from Dandenong North was fatally injured when struck by a car after visiting a playground at Dandenong Stadium with his father on 17 December 2023.
With his son on his shoulders, the father crossed Stud Road’s south-bound lanes.
A car blared its horn, alerting the dad to the child’s hat having fallen onto the road.
He placed his son down on the road’s median strip, told him to stay there and ran back to collect the hat.
His child initially ran out onto the road after his dad.
The boy then took a few steps back towards the median strip when he was struck by a Ford F250 dual-cab utility with a front metal bull-bar.
Despite CPR by bystanders and paramedics, he died at the scene.
There had been a “cluster of collisions” in the same location plus further ones in the “general vicinity” on Stud Road, Judge John Cain reported on 13 November.
However there was no pedestrian crossing or traffic light. Drivers leaving the stadium are required to give way to traffic, he noted.
At the time of the boy’s death, the speed limit was 80 km/h. In response, the State Government reduced the limit to 60 km/h.
“I commend this change, although note that the car that struck (the boy) was estimated to be travelling at 40 km/h, well below either speed limit,” Judge Cain stated.
In May this year, after community uproar, the State Government announced funding for an upgrade of the nearby intersection of Stud and McFees roads, including signalisation and a pedestrian crossing.
Judge Cain recommended a pedestrian crossing and/or traffic lights at a slightly different intersection – at the road in and out of Dandenong Stadium.
“This would allow safe passage for pedestrians leaving the Stadium to reach the other side of Stud Road,” he stated.
The Coroner noted that police cleared the dual-cab driver of any criminal offences. He was not impaired, distracted, speeding or driving recklessly.
“(The driver) would not have been able to see, react, and avoid the collision with (the boy), particularly considering his small stature and his height in comparison to the vehicle’s bonnet.”
The driver had immediately stopped after the crash and called triple-0.
After Office of Public Prosecutions advice, police opted not to charge the boy’s father with criminal negligence.
It was not in the public interest or so far short of the reasonable person test, the OPP advised.
For several years, Greater Dandenong Council and Cr Lana Formoso have campaigned strongly for a safe pedestrian crossing at the black-spot.
Residents, including children, regularly bolt across the road to access the popular Dandenong Stadium, a bus stop, playground and floodplains parkland.
The nearest pedestrian crossing is 850 metres away at the Heatherton Road lights, with the eastern side of Stud Road largely without a footpath.
It means many attempt crossing unsafely or instead drive across rather than taking a detour of about 1.7 kilometres.
In 2018, VicRoads pledged to install pedestrian lights and review the speed limit after a pedestrian in her 50s was fatally struck while crossing to a nearby bus stop.
