Narrabundah residents are calling on the ACT Government urgently to act after another prang at the “dangerous” intersection of La Perouse Street and Carnegie Crescent.
Last Wednesday afternoon, 9 March, a car ran into a safety island outside Red Hill Primary School, at school pick-up time.
“A mum and her kids could have been on that traffic island,” said concerned resident Timothy DeWan.
Such accidents are common at the intersection – and Mr DeWan fears it is only a matter of time before someone is killed.
“It’s an absolute death-trap, and something will happen,” he said. “We’re going to have a death; we’re definitely going to have a death.”
Five schools and several aged care facilities are near the intersection, which witnesses two accidents a week on average – and many near-misses every day, locals estimate.
Outdated road design, heavy traffic, and speed are to blame, Mr DeWan believes. The intersection was built in the 1950s, and not designed for modern traffic – but as other roads close to them, this is the only place trucks and trailers can come through, he said. But they are too narrow, and mount the kerb. Workers drive through en route to Civic or Red Hill, while the Red Hill development project will put another estimated 230 cars on the streets around the intersection.
The intersection is in a dip between two hills; to get up the slope, cars and trucks must accelerate, but cannot see what is on the other side of the rise, Mr DeWan said. Cars hurtle down the sloped road, and fail to see stop signs or travel too fast to stop.
“We’re having lots of potential accidents as the cars and trucks come over the rise; trucks are going too fast to slow down.”
For some months, there was an accident every fortnight, one resident who lived on the corner told Mr DeWan. Three cars have crashed into his hedge, and one entered his front yard. Now, his children are not allowed to play out the front anymore.
Safety islands have been pushed over, and children and elderly residents have gotten stuck on them. On the morning Canberra Daily met Mr DeWan at the intersection, he counted three cars going through the stop signs – and one near crash.
Last year, Chris Steel, ACT Minister for Transport and City Services, said the ACT Government would release a pedestrian safety study. Announced in March, it was delayed by the pandemic and lockdown.
The government has received the final draft and is finalising the report, Mr Steel said. The findings will be shared with the Narrabundah community once they are available.
But Mr DeWan believes this is inadequate. “A report won’t save a child. It is direct action that will save a child’s here. And all we get is talk about reports. They’re not doing anything, or we don’t see it.”
Mr DeWan wants government engineers to visit Narrabundah, listen to the community’s concerns, then fix the intersection – “not come up with book-based solutions without consultation”. He worries the government’s response will be to visit the intersection at a quiet time, install another traffic island, and tick the problem off their list – a sorry result for more than a year of campaigning. Locals have suggested 40 (or even 30) km/h speed limits, a roundabout, and road markers reminding drivers to slow down.
Conversely, the government needs to hurry, Mr DeWan believes; in his view, the government is taking too long. He met Mr Steel and representatives from Roads ACT (Transport and City Services) in March 2021 – a year ago.
“Something needs to be done now,” he said. “That should have been done last year, but we’re still waiting.”
Mr DeWan said he was told informally the Commonwealth would make money available immediately through the Black Spot Program if someone were killed.
“We don’t want to have a death. Who will be deputised from Roads ACT to go to the parents of that child, and say: ‘Thank you very much. Sorry about your loss. But we’ve now got money to fix this problem.’?”
Mr DeWan has written to every local MLA; school and community associations have also appealed.
“When something happens, no-one within the bureaucracy or government will be able to ay we weren’t aware,” he said. “And our politicians will be held to account for this by public opinion.”
Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee, a local MLA, has started a petition calling on the ACT Government to upgrade the intersection to make it safer for children and all road users.
“Many local residents have raised their serious concerns about safety at this intersection, and despite me raising these issues with the Minister for years, nothing has been done,” she said.
“The concerns about the serious safety issues at this intersection were brought to me by local residents but also by parents of children at Red Hill Primary who walk the area regularly and see how unsafe it is. When the primary users of the area are primary school-aged children, we must take every precaution to keep them safe.
“The ACT Labor-Greens government must take these concerns seriously and take urgent action to fix this dangerous intersection.”
Mr DeWan welcomed the petition, if only for raising public attention.
“If Elizabeth Lee’s action will gain some knowledge and understanding of this issue, that’s good – but again, I say, petitions are good, reports are good, but something happens to happen now. Not six months from now, or 12 months from now. We are willing to have an 80 per cent solution rather than having to wait another six months or 12 months for a 90 or 100 per cent solution.”
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