School children are being forced to play chicken with traffic at a dangerous Warrnambool intersection, sparking calls for urgent action.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Raglan Parade intersections at both Ardlie Street and Botanic Road are causing traffic nightmares for pedestrians and motorists, according to MP Roma Britnell and Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan.
They raised concerns about the number of near misses and accidents at the intersections.
Ms Britnell said it was "unspeakable" to talk about what could happen at the intersection if nothing was done soon.
Our children are just too precious to be playing games like chicken with.
- Roma Britnell
"We need to be the adults in this situation and avert the tragedies. I don't want to be talking about it in retrospect because it's going to be someone's kid we all know. It's just too great a price to pay," she said.
She said she was shocked when she talked to students about the intersection.
"Kids are usually oblivious but when kids are saying they've got to play chicken, I think that's an issue," Ms Britnell said.
"Our children are just too precious to be playing games like chicken with.
"The traffic is getting significantly worse. At 9am there were 30 people waiting at the lights. That might not sound like a lot in Caulfield but for here it's extraordinary."
Ms Britnell said she would write to the government in an attempt to get them to address the issue, but just what needed to be done she would leave up to the engineers.
She said she had spoken to the city council about the issue, and they were keen to see action on upgrading the intersection which falls mostly under the responsibility of VicRoads.
Mr Morgan said that the Ardlie/Hider streets intersection with Raglan Parade was more of a problem for students walking to school, while the Botanic Road intersection was causing headaches for motorists.
He said that even though the speed limit on Raglan Parade was slowed to 60km/h near the Botanic Road intersection, few were slowing down by the time they reached Ardlie Street.
Mr Morgan said Raglan Parade near Warrnambool Primary School had "the full bells and whistles" with traffic lights and 40km/h zone and flashing lights.
"Here you've got nothing. You're coming off the 70km/h zone into this space. Plenty of people are still going through here at 70km/h and nothing's there to calm that traffic at all," he said.
Just telling kids to walk to the next set of traffic lights didn't work, he said, because children usually took the shortest route to school regardless of what they're told.
Ms Britnell said older students were not necessarily more aware of traffic safety.
She said Raglan Parade had a 40km/h speed zone near Fletcher Jones for East Warrnambool Primary School that was a block away. It was the same situation at the Ardlie Street intersection.
"If we've got that in east Warrnambool, it makes sense to have that here," she said.
Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.
