Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Adjournment

Kooyong–North roads, Caulfield

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (19:00): (6306) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action that I seek is an urgent review, including a traffic report, of the safety of the Kooyong Road–North Road intersection as well as an immediate start of a proper safety upgrade of this site. On 9 November last year a teenage boy was hit by a truck at this intersection. He suffered severe injuries, and he was fighting for his life. It was a horrifying wake-up call to many locals about the dangers this intersection possesses. There are many young children that actually use this area on the way to school, and both I and the member for Brighton met with a number of the parents and these kids wanting immediate action to ensure that this intersection was made safe.

Well, it has now been five months since the accident took place, four months since I raised this matter in Parliament and three months since the department committed to making this intersection safe for the people of my electorate of Caulfield. What has happened since? Nothing. The community desperately wants action. There have been over 1000 people who have signed a petition, and an additional petition that we will table in Parliament had a further 361 people sign it. This is a real concern in terms of safety for many parents. It is a real issue for many kids, and when we have seen near misses—a kid being bowled over by a truck—something desperately needs to be done.

The residents have also made a number of suggestions as to what can be done, including ensuring better signage and speed reductions. Even the lip on which the cars turn right could be raised slightly, because many cars override it and go onto the footpath when they travel through. If the government is going to ignore these people, then we are only one accident away from a tragedy. I call on the minister, I implore the minister, tonight to do what was first asked and was promised—that is, give us a traffic management report of what we can do to upgrade the safety measures that are desperately needed at the Kooyong Road–North Road intersection so we can go back to those parents and we can go back to the residents that live around this intersection to make sure it is finally made safe.