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Safety call on ‘black ribbon of death’

Posted on November 28, 2008, 6:06am and updated on November 28, 2008 at 3:45 pm

Calls for common sense, rather than a dual carriageway, have been made following safety concerns along the Dukes Highway, labelled recently the “black ribbon of death”.

In recent months five people have lost their lives along the highway in four separate incidents.

This prompted a call from Coorong Mayor Roger Strother for safety upgrades and from Federal MP Patrick Secker for the introduction of a dual carriageway.

However, Tatiara Road Safety Group chairman Peter Cook said a dual carriageway was not necessary.

“There have been huge improvements and I believe the Dukes Highway is now one of the safest highways — that is if drivers treat it properly and drive to conditions,” he said.

Mr Cook said the road had been improved over recent years through the introduction of overtaking lanes, shoulder widening and vibralines, which should provide ample safety for drivers.

“The passing lanes are nearly every five kilometres — you just back off until you get to a passing lane and then pass,” he said.

He said accidents along this stretch of road were more likely to be linked to driver error than the road condition.

“It’s lack of driving experience, it’s alcohol, it’s fatigue, it’s suicide,” he said.

However, Mr Cook said he still had major safety concerns regarding the highway, being the lack of double lines along overtaking lanes.

He has been pushing for the introduction of double lines, which he said would prevent drivers overtaking when coming from the opposite direction, or overtaking three abreast, which he said was still legal, and a major safety issue.

He said another concern was that the surface of the highway “holds the water after a heavy downpour of rain”, which increased the chance of aquaplaning.

But again, he said this required drivers to drive to the conditions of the road and adapt their driving accordingly.

Regular users of the roadway have also expressed concerns about driver behaviour along the Dukes Highway.

Gambier Coachlines owner Max Seebohm said while an upgraded road would be a good thing, most of the problems faced on the road were not due to road conditions, but to driver actions.

“It’s more driver error than anything else,” Mr Seebohm said.

“People do silly things, they pull out and pass when they shouldn’t.

“A better road is always going to be better, but people need to drive to the road conditions.

“People need to pay more attention to the road and if they stop taking stupid risks it will be better for everyone.”

Mr Seebohm said his staff saw similar problems on roads across the region.

“We see it a lot on the road,” he said.

“Because we’re speed limited to 100km, people always try to get past us.”

Duell’s Furniture Removalists owner Allan Duell said his truck drivers regularly saw people taking unnecessary risks.

“We use that road three times a week,” he said.

“We see it all the time, people taking risks, and that’s how accidents happen.”

However, he did support the call for a dual carriageway, which he said would remove the issue of drivers taking risks, particularly when overtaking other vehicles.

He also said not enough had been done to improve safety along parts of the road and the spate of recent accidents was evidence money should be invested into upgrading the safety of the highway.

“From what I can see, not enough funds have been put in to increase the safety,” he said.

SARAH DUFFIELD

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