By KATH GANNAWAY
CR Jim Child has called for the immediate installation of bollards to close off the Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail crossing on the Warburton Highway, at Barak Drive, in Yarra Junction.
Supporting his urgent motion with a slide show of potential disasters at the Yarra Ranges Council meeting on Tuesday night, he also proposed that the council write to the Minister for Road Safety requesting traffic lights be installed at the new crossing point.
Friends of the Warburton to Lilydale Rail Trail have been lobbying for a safer crossing on that section of highway for a number of years.
In 2014 they were partly successful with the realignment of the trail crossing, and a reduction in the speed limit on the highway to 50km/h.
The old crossing, however, was not blocked off and is still being used.
Friends spokeswoman Meg Wallens has been driving the change on behalf of the group.
They presented 2014 traffic count data to the council on the use of the crossing in June 2014, and 2015 figures in March this year.
“We’re alarmed about this ongoing dangerous situation at Yarra Junction,” Ms Wallens said.
She said the data confirmed that both trail and highway traffic were on the increase and that while the Yarra Ranges Council had agreed to upgrade signage at the crossing by the end of this month, there had been no commitment to anything further.
“It’s not about signage; there are enough confusing signs near the crossing to foil an army,” she said.
“Repeatedly during the week, we see mobs of school children, mothers with prams or elderly walking groups either stranded in the middle of the highway, or waiting for a break in the traffic to dash across it.”
She said there was no protection from oncoming traffic and no imperative for drivers to stop to allow stranded people to cross.
The Friends group want lights installed, and say it needs to be done as a matter of urgency.
“We really fear that there will be a fatality here before this is addressed,” Ms Wallens said.
“It is a sobering thought which underpins our advocacy to council.”
Cr Child took on the role of advocate to fellow councillors, presenting an impassioned argument for immediate action.
He painted a picture of chaos and confusion, saying: “What we have on the site at the moment is actually two crossings.
“We have both open and some use the new, some use the old,” he said, giving several examples of where pedestrians and horse and bike riders had come into conflict with road traffic.
He was supported by councillors Andy Witlox and Len Cox, and ultimately by all the councillors who voted unanimously for immediate action to close off the original crossing, and to lobby for lights.
Cr Witlox said there were traffic lights at Wandin and Launching Place and that this was another dangerous crossing that needed that sort of control.
Cr Cox said people needed to be able to cross the highway without fear of being knocked over.
In his closing remarks, Cr Child, commended the Friends of the Lilydale Warburton Rail Trail for their persistence in lobbying for a safer crossing.
He also spoke of the tragedy of lives lost to road trauma.
“Over the last few years, I’ve been to five funerals of young people in the Upper Yarra who have been killed on that highway,” he said.
“Anything we can do as a council so parents don’t have to go through that misery of losing a loved one on the road … ” Cr Child said.
He continued: “The first thing we have to do is make that precinct as safe as we possibly can prior to next weekend”.
