Pakenham and Koo Wee Rup residents want work on accident-prone road

People living near Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Rd have called for urgent action to fix the accident-prone road after another serious crash earlier this month.

The accident, near the corner of Island Rd in Pakenham South, closed the road for several hours.

In a Facebook forum for Koo Wee Rup residents, Kathy Scott said there was a collision almost every day on the stretch of road.

Simone Huxtable said there was no room for driver error on the road.

Carmel Paton said she was frightened every time she drove on the road, saying impatient drivers didn’t want to wait to overtake safely. She said there needed to be extra lanes on the road.

Kathryn Jones said she had seen two car flips in two days.

Kerry Ingram said she avoided the road because of the huge trucks and impatient drivers.

“After two weeks of driving Koo Wee Rup-Pakenham Rd I will be taking the longer way around,” she said.

“I counted more than 60 big trucks heading to Koo Wee Rup on my short commute, all rocking and rolling on a bad road, single carriageway.”

Greg Interlandi said he had seen five crashes in two weeks and the speed limit needed to be dropped but Jayne McKenzie said people who ignored the current speed limit would ignore the new limit.

“I’ve been passed like I’m stationary so reducing speed limits would only make the non-speeding drivers put at risk by tailgaters trying to pass,” she said.

Cardinia Shire Council senior traffic engineer Nicholas Charrett said: “Cardinia Shire Council recently advocated to VicRoads for the duplication of Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Rd between Pakenham and Koo Wee Rup.”

“Council believes the duplication would improve safety and congestion.”

RACV manager of roads and traffic Dave Jones said the organisation hadn’t received complaints about Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Rd for a while but said VicRoads did need to look at congestion and the number of crashes along the road and consider safety measures.

He said reducing the speed limit would not reduce the number of crashes but might mean less severe crashes.

“They could increase overtaking lanes or crash barriers,” he said.

“South of the Pakenham bypass it’s a two-lane country road and it has all the safety issues of a very, very busy route but it’s built to a rural standard.”

VicRoads spokesman Aidan McGann said an upgrade or duplication would be subject to future statewide priorities and funding.

“Over the past three years, we have delivered a number of safety projects on this section of Healesville-Koo Wee Rup which includes installing new guard fencing and wire rope safety barriers,” he said.

“Road shoulders have also been sealed, line marking refreshed, street lighting improved and regular road rehabilitation work has been undertaken to maintain the road surface.

“We currently consider the speed limit appropriate for the road’s function and condition.

“This will continue to be assessed regularly.”