There are just as many local residents involved in car crashes on the Kings Highway as ACT drivers.
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That is what about 15 residents heard when they attended a workshop on Friday as part of the Kings Highway Road Safety Review.
The State Govern-
ment announced the review after five people tragically lost their lives in two separate accidents in March.
In a presentation of data, residents were told that 29 per cent of drivers in car accidents were from the Kings Highway Local Government area, while 28 per cent were from the ACT.
These statistics were taken between 2007 and 2011, and included the two fatal accidents this year.
“Locals are in more risk of being involved in a casualty crash,” project manager and presenter Wal Smart said.
Since 2000, 38 people have been killed on the road, and 719 people injured, in a total of 481 crashes.
Nineteen of these lives lost have occurred in the past five years.
The review into the highway’s safety is being completed by the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) and Centre for Road Safety.
Mr Smart said the review was a seven-week project that was looking for a cost effective way to improve safety on the road with engineering works, including road widening, shoulders, right-hand turning bays and safety barriers.
He said the main safety issues on the highway were speed limits, trees too close to roads, poor alignment and poor driver behaviour.
Residents didn’t hold back when they vented their frustrations to State Government representatives.
Ron Cregan said he’d been driving heavy vehicles up and down the Kings Highway for 20 years, and closed his business “partly because of the road”.
“I wonder about some of the things the RTA does,” he said. “You’re tackling the wrong places on the road, you’re not listening.”
He said millions went into installing two large solar-powered traffic control signs on the Clyde Mountain that couldn’t display messages sent from another location because there’s no mobile signal.
He said this was “a total waste of money”.
David Ashford said he used to drive the highway regularly to Queanbeyan.
“The frustrating thing I see is people getting impatient,” he said. “If you get caught behind a slow vehicle it could take you over an hour to get to Braidwood.”
He called for more overtaking lanes and road widening.
Margaret Turner also said driver behaviour was one of the main issues on the road.
Councillor Allan Brown also took the opportunity to question RMS staff about why funding had been given to the area between Queanbeyan and Bungendore but not “the worst part” between the mountain and Batemans Bay.
RMS southern manager for road safety and traffic management Brian Lefoe said federal money was allocated to that section because of the defence force base.
However, he said the Kings Highway was a State Government responsibility, not a federal.
What the stats say:
In crashes that resulted in injury and/or death between 2007 and 2011: