Safety push

By Lia Bichel
A YOUNG Hallam man is calling for safety upgrades to a “death trap” intersection in Hampton Park.
Simon Difilippo, 21, said he believed someone would die at the corner of Pound and Shrives roads in Hampton Park unless safety improvements occurred soon.
“It’s pretty much a death trap. It is impossible to do a right hand turn at the intersection,” he said.
“Someone will die if the StateGovernment doesn’t do something,and it shouldn’t take someone to die for their to be upgrades.”
Mr Difilippo voiced his concerns to Narre Warren South MP Judith Graley last year.
Ms Graley said she raised the matter in Parliament with the Minister for Roads in March last year, but said she was unhappy with the response.
“I have now written to the Minister, asking that he considers a safety upgrade of the intersection, giving the Baillieu Government a second chance to act on the community’s safety concerns,” Ms Graley said
The intersection has been the site of many accidents, and is the cause of many residents’ frustrations, Ms Graley said.
“The intersection is regularly the site of long waits in traffic as people seek to turn safely so they can get home, to school, to the shops and to other facilities,” Ms Graley said
“Local residents in nearby estates regularly contact me about having difficulty getting into and out of their neighbourhoods.
“The lengthy wait often contributes to dangerous driving, with onlookers reporting the risky behaviour of some drivers,”
Minister for Road Terry Mulder did not provide a response by the time the News went to print.