Freeway safety

THERE is much more to consider about the safety of the freeway than the very serious problem of runaway trucks at its intersection with Glen Osmond Road.

The need for heavy vehicles to travel at 20km/h or less in low gear, other trucks and buses restricted to 60km/h and cars travelling at 90km/h is a fundamentally dangerous situation.

Drive any freeway in Europe or America and see how police demand that slower vehicles speed up for everyone’s safety.

The planned population growth in the Hills and other towns will see doubling of commuter demand on the two-lane section between Mt Barker and Crafers, with its long, truck slowing inclines leaving Mt Barker and on the approaches to Bridgewater and Crafers.

The same growth will result in a 50% increase in traffic from Crafers to the City.

Truck traffic will also increase to service population growth.

Trying to accommodate all this safely by road transport alone will require massive investment in road infrastructure that cannot be justified.

We need a far broader approach to dealing with this issue in the future.

The issue is transport not just trucks, an approach that has been sadly lacking in this State for far too long.

SATAG has been working on just this.

We continue to advocate for road and rail bypasses around the Hills.

Treat the root cause of the problems.

John Hill, Crafers