Thursday, 16 November 2023

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) incorporated the following (610):

My adjournment is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and concerns the Kialla West Primary School Crossing.

Action: The action that I seek is for the Minister to commit funding to construct a pedestrian underpass to replace the current Kialla West Primary School crossing on the Goulburn Valley Highway.

Five years ago on Monday, 10 September, a terrible three-vehicle collision occurred at the crossing on Goulburn Valley Highway outside Kialla West Primary School.

The circumstances of the collision were that two vehicles, one facing north and one facing south, were stationary at the crossing while students crossed the Goulburn Valley Highway at the end of school.

A truck travelling north on Goulburn Valley Highway collided with the stationary vehicle facing north, pushing it through the school crossing and into the vehicle facing south. The vehicle hit by the truck contained a mother, Jane Sharp and her three young daughters and narrowly missed colliding with students using the crossing.

Jane and her two eldest daughters were treated at Goulburn Valley Health. Unfortunately, Jane’s youngest daughter Addison a Grade 1 student at the time had to be airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital with serious head injuries. She remained in a coma for several days and still faces challenges due to the accident.

Over the past five years I have raised the need for a safety upgrade at this crossing 18 times and the reason I am raising this issue once again is twofold, one because five years have passed without any safety significant safety upgrade to this crossing and because Addison who is now in Gade six is about to graduate from Kialla West and the Government owe it to her to make a commitment to upgrade the crossing before she leaves.

I first raised this issue on the 18th September 2018 and despite having raised it in Parliament 18 times I have only ever received six responses. The first response I received in February 2019 Identified short term improvements like refreshing line marking, re-painting of faded bollards and vegetation trimming to improve visibility and also referred to long term improvements such as a pedestrian underpass or overpass.

In June 2019 Minister Pulford responded to me saying, ‘RRV continues to meet with Kialla West Primary School and Council to develop a longer- term proposal for a pedestrian underpass at this location’.

In a March 2020 response Minister Pulford said, ‘I have directed RRV to assist the council in the planning and development of a future pedestrian underpass along with exploring possible funding opportunities for construction’.

However, the latest response from the Government received from Minister Horne in May 23 seems even less committal merely saying ‘DTP is continuing to work in consultation with the City of Greater Shepparton and Kialla West Primary School to identify possible solutions to address safety concerns associated with this school crossing’.

The short-term improvements which were nothing more than window dressing were completed but five years later there has been no significant action taken by this Government to improve safety for the students and families of the Kialla West Primary School community.

It is time the Government got on with the job to provide safety for all at the Kialla West Primary School crossing.