A NUMBER of serious crashes on the intersection of Maitland and King Streets in Uralla has resident John Carlon calling for action.
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“I’ve been trying to get a roundabout on that corner since 2001,” Mr Carlon said.
“We have crashes there and a lot of the times that’s because of the speed people are travelling at, you’ll see cars flying through there.”
Mr Carlon is the local member representative on the Uralla Local Traffic Committee.
Uralla Shire Council has tried a number of treatments to remedy the danger zone.
The direction of traffic flow has been changed along with the position of give way signs and a number of trees have been removed from the corners to improve sight lines.
Despite efforts to fix the issue, motor vehicle accidents continue to occur – the most recent in October last year.
“The last major crash there was on October 15 where two people were taken to hospital, one of them in a very serious condition with a broken pelvis, broken ribs, punctured lungs and other internal injuries,” Mr Carlon said.
“The door of that car had to be cut off to get the 85-year-old woman out – I think she spent the next six weeks or more in hospital.”
There have been four motor vehicle accidents on the intersection since 2012.
All of the accidents resulted from the vehicle travelling west on King Street failing to obey the give way sign and impacting a vehicle travelling along Maitland Street.
The Uralla Local Traffic Committee members have approached the Roads and Maritime Services to discuss eligibility for Black Spot program funding, but were knocked back.
“The RTA [now RMS] has said no, they believe there hasn’t been enough crashes there whereas I believe one crash is too many and we should try to do something about it,” Mr Carlon said.
Uralla Shire Council mayor Michael Pearce said that more enquiries would have to be made to see if the intersection would qualify for Black Spot program funding.
“All of the recommendations in the meeting were seconded and adopted, Council will be looking at a couple of options to improve traffic calming,” he said.
The recommendations were that Council prepare a number of intersection layouts that incorporate traffic calming with a consideration for pedestrian continuity in response to the recorded accident history.
Information from the NSW Road Safety states that roundabouts provide a safer outcome than traditional intersections by reducing motorists speed, conflict points and impact angles.
Council has arranged to install larger give way signs and an additional give way sign earlier on King Street.