By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
CASEY has recorded the second-most road deaths in Victoria in the last decade.
There were 17 road fatalities reported in Casey from 2006 to 2015, with a motorcyclist death in Cranbourne last week adding to the fast climbing 2016 road toll.
Casey was ranked second alongside Hume and Brimbank, while Baw Bar and East Gippsland topped the list on 19 fatalities, from 2006 to 2015.
There have been 23 motorcyclists killed in Victoria this year, nine of whom allegedly did not have a valid licence, bringing the state’s road toll to 76 – 16 fatalities higher than this time last year.
Last Tuesday 15 March, a Narre Warren man died in a motorcycle crash in Cranbourne West.
Police say the 58-year-old man was riding west on Central Parkway, about 4.20pm, when he crashed.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The TAC last week issued a safety plea ahead of the Easter long weekend, in the wake of the state’s rising road toll.
“Weekends like Easter see a lot of people getting out and seeing different parts of the state, and many are travelling longer distances than they are accustomed to and on roads that they are not familiar with,” TAC senior road safety manager Samantha Cockfield said.
“When you add drowsiness into the mix, it can be a tragic recipe.“
This month’s fatality in Cranbourne West is one of a string of tragic road deaths in Casey over the last 10 years.
Last month, Star News spoke with Bob Halsall, a former Casey Councillor, who witnessed a horror car crash in Lynbrook in 2008.
He was sitting in his own car at the stop lights at the Lynbrook Boulevard and South Gippsland Highway intersection when a truck ran a red light and hit a car in March 2008, claiming the lives of two boys, 6 and 9.
Eight years later, safety concerns are still being raised about the site, with Casey Council urging the community to participate in a recently closed VicRoads survey regarding the notorious intersection.
Last year, more than 6000 people signed an online petition for a roundabout to be built at a notorious Pearcedale intersection where two people died in five years.
The most recent fatality there was last May, when 19-year-old Olivia Steadman-Meconi lost her life in a multi-car crash.
Cranbourne’s Emma Lowen knows what it’s like to live the nightmare of losing a teenage daughter to the road toll.
On 28 June 2009, Emma’s 16-year-old daughter, Riyani, was killed in a two-car collision at the intersection of Hallam and Ormond roads, which also claimed the lives of fellow Narre Warren South P-12 College student Anja Miller, 15, and friend Joel Brimble, 19.
A fortnight later as she drove past a roadside memorial erected for the lost teenagers, a 21-year-old woman was killed instantly when her car was hit by a B-double truck at the same intersection.
After years of community campaigning, a section of Hallam Road between Pound and Ormond roads recently underwent a $40 million upgrade, which was completed in 2015.
For more information, visit www.tac.vic.gov.au.
