Wednesday, 16 October 2024

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:58): (1161) My question for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety concerns the state of the Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road. A CFA volunteer and constituent contacted me. He had attended four accidents on the road in the last two weeks. We stopped outside a primary school, because I went there to check it out, where the road shoulder had completely disintegrated and substantial cracks had opened in the carriageway. It is not a back road but a 100-kilometre-per-hour route, a designated freight pathway, a road train road, as was apparent from the number of trucks thundering past. Despite this, there were no turning lanes outside the school, and the original plan for a roundabout at the location was abandoned. Now, I have checked out the stats on this. Between 2012 and 2023, 236 people suffered accidents on the road, 132 were injured, 65 seriously, and there were nine fatalities. Minister, redesign the road.