Driver, 82, recalls lucky escape

By Kath Gannaway
AN 82-YEAR-OLD Healesville man has said he will seek compensation from VicRoads after his truck was written off when it hit a concrete culvert on the Healesville-Yarra Glen Road last week.
Senior Constable Glen Piper of Yarra Glen police said Ted Leitch was extremely lucky to escape injury when his small truck, loaded with soil, tipped on to its side after hitting the culvert on a narrow, curved section of the road.
The road was closed for more than two hours and traffic diverted through Toolangi while the accident scene was cleared.
Mr Leitch found himself in trouble when he edged to the left as a large truck travelling in the opposite direction came into view. He told the Mail his wheels dropped off the bitumen into a deep gutter and he was unable to get the truck back on the road. Fearful that an over correction could throw him across the double lines into oncoming traffic, Mr Leitch said he followed the gutter down hoping for an opportunity to safely drive out.
“I travel that road all the time and knew the concrete culvert was coming up,” he said.
“I just thought, this is the end of me. I hit the culvert which put the truck up the bank and it went over. If I had been going at all fast, I just don’t know what would have happened.
“What it wants is the gutter to be filled with rocks so if you do go in you can drive out,” Mr Leitch said.
He said after his ordeal, his main concern was that if a driver who doesn’t know the road got into the same situation, they could end up very much worse off than he has.
“I was driving well below the limit, but if someone was doing the legal speed limit of 70km/h, they could be in real trouble,” he said.
While VicRoads has told Mr Leitch they will send out a compensation, form, they say the open drain is standard for the type of road.
VicRoads acting regional manager Trevor Boyd said stones or gravel in the drain would present an obstruction and added that “drains are not intended for vehicles to travel in them”.
He said while the current standard for new and upgrades to private driveways are designed so vehicles can drive out if they get into a drain, the majority of private driveways on that section of road would have been installed when that standard was not applicable.
Mr Leitch has welcomed Mr Boyd’s undertaking that VicRoads will inspect the road to see if any immediate measures are needed, but says their explanation is not relevant as the culvert is not attached to a private driveway – or any driveway.
“It’s just midway down the embankment on the side of the road, and it’s dangerous,” he said.
Meanwhile, VicRoads have also responded to a call from a local resident who said the speed limit of 70km/h is too fast.
Carol Sibbel watched from the service road where she lives as the truck was winched onto a tow truck.
“Seventy is too fast down that stretch,” she said. “We hear the skids and screeching brakes constantly and it’s very frightening when you are coming out of the service road (onto the Healesville-Yarra Glen Road) because of the limited vision.”
Mrs Sibbel called for the speed limit to be reduced to 60km/h.
VicRoads said a review of the road between the Old Healesville Road and Mount Vue Road had shown the 70km/h speed zone was appropriate.
“The posted speed is the maximum speed allowed under good conditions and drivers are expected to travel at an appropriate speed for the prevailing conditions, which may be less than the posted speed,” Mr Boyd said.
He said there had been no recorded casualties over the past five years on that section of road.