EVERY year countless lives are lost on regional NSW roads and while most are repaired or are in stages of repair, some remain dangerous hotspots.
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The Seeing Red on Roads campaign which has seen some 55,000 people take part since its inception in 2011 has consistently seen many metro roads top voter polls.
Yet it is regional roads that are also attracting the ire of motorists with Yass, Orange and Young all listed as ‘seeing red’ trouble spots.
According to feedback from drivers on the interactive NRMA Seeing Red on Roads map, many motorists who particpated in the survey were quite critical of visibility, adequate markings and signage as well as the state and quality of roads in Young and surrounding areas.
Some of the feedback included -
“The road lines in Whiteman Avenue in Young are not visible on the road especially at night due to patch up jobs. The road has a bend and T-intersection in two places! Dangerous! I’m surprised there has been no cars drive there that have crashed!!!!”
“Rhodes Road is a school bus route and during cherry season heavy vehicles use it to transport fruit. It has a very poor surface!”
And this -
“The Olympic Highway at Bendick Murrell has red 75kph signs that no one takes notice of at all. There should be signs changing the speed limit to 75 and a speed camera fixed as too many people have lost their lives there.
“At a time when police and other agencies are at pains to promote driver safety, isn’t it only right the powers that be make our roads better?”
Other roads that came in for criticism in the area included Iandra Road near Greenethorpe which was criticised for poor quality and the large array of potholes that adorn it’s surface and the Mid-Western Highway near Grenfell.
One voter said that the whole of highway near Grenfell needed replenishing sooner rather than later.
This comes on the back of a Young Witness front page story on August 31 that highlighted the poor state of the Quamby SS Road which also has a smattering of potholes and troublesome spots.
Young Witness editor, Edwina Mason even took a tour of that road herself and was quite shocked by the state of it.
Yet while the NRMA and local government are doing what they can within the confines of the resources they have, many believe our roads should be made a priority.
Young Shire Council’s operations director Dirk Wymer has one of the more difficult jobs at council. He has 670 kilometres of gravel road to contend with in the shire.
With planned gravel resheeting underway we may see changes sooner rather than later to the state of our roads but the process has been slow to say the least.
Yet council cannot act alone and there still remains some problematic stretches of road around the region.
NRMA president Kyle Loades believes far too many stretches of highway in regional NSW and the ACT remain dangerously, even fatally, substandard.
“The case for completing roadworks has never been stronger,” she said.
