Wednesday, 19 February 2025

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (09:44): Traffic chaos has unfolded following the government’s decision to fully close the Melba Highway for landslip repairs on Monday. Vehicles are being detoured to local roads, which are unsuitable for the volume of traffic and the sizes and types of vehicles. Roads are too narrow and steep and have too many tight bends for trucks, caravans, some trailers and horse floats. Within hours of the closure the situation became greatly concerning, and the fears and predictions of locals were realised. Reports backed up by photos showed vehicles almost being run off the roads, caravans and trucks stuck as they were too large to navigate the tight bends, cars actually run off the roads, too many near misses and horses falling in floats. B-doubles should not be on the detour roads, but they are and they are going too fast past the Chum Creek Primary School on the Healesville-Kinglake Road, posing great safety concerns. Everyone said it was only a matter of time before someone was killed, and yesterday, a day and a half later, there was a fatality on the treacherous Heidelberg-Kinglake Road. The government needs to improve urgently the traffic management or find a better solution or these problems will continue.