Above: The latest crash on Saturday at the notorious intersection of Empire Way, Keppel Drive and Hallam South Road. By Sarah Schwager
A HAMPTON Park woman relived painful memories when she witnessed a car crash on the weekend.
Lynda Cartmill was replacing flowers in Hallam at the spot where her husband was killed, when a crash occurred at the same intersection.
Mrs Cartmill’s husband Colin died in February last year when the car he was driving and another collided on the corner of Empire Way, Keppel Drive and Hallam South Road.
Since then there have been several other crashes on the same section of road.
On Saturday two cars collided about 1pm as one failed to give way when emerging from Empire Way across Hallam South Road into Keppel Drive.
“It was horrifying,” Mrs Cartmill said.
“It all happened while I was standing there.”
Mrs Cartmill reignited calls for traffic lights to be installed at the notorious Hallam intersection.
She said cars had to do an illegal turn just to get on to Hallam South Road and it was extremely dangerous.
VicRoads has already agreed there is a need for traffic lights to be installed but has not yet specified when.
VicRoads metropolitan south east regional manager Steve Brown said the roads corporation acknowledged the intersection had a history of 21 crashes involving turning traffic for the five-year period to December 2005.
“A proposal has been developed to install intersection signals which would provide much safer control of turning vehicles,” Mr Brown said.
“The proposal has been submitted to the Government and is currently being considered for funding under a future program.”
River Gum Ward councillor Wayne Smith said he would take a letter by Mrs Cartmill to the council and urge the council to write to the State Government calling for immediate action.
“There has got to be something wrong,” Cr Smith said.
“This is a really dangerous spot. There are fatalities occurring.”
Mrs Cartmill said she always put flowers at the intersection, mostly to warn people to be careful.
The mother of two girls she said she was just pleading with the Government to install lights so someone else did not die.
Sergeant Pat McGavaghan from Casey Traffic Management Unit said the drivers, a 22-year-old Springvale man and an 18-year-old Emerald man, were not hurt in Saturday’s crash.
