By Jessica Anstice
Narre Warren South residents are calling for urgent safety upgrades after vehicles have ploughed into a family home twice in the past 10 months at The Promenade.
Over the last 18 months, residents have witnessed multiple car accidents causing major structural damage to properties and vehicles along the street.
Home-owner Jackie Moroney and her family were forced to relocate for five months after the first vehicle crashed into their home, landing on a bed and ending up in a walk-in-robe in April 2018.
“It was extremely distressing to all members of my family. After this event the City Of Casey did some road monitoring and did not implement any road calming devices,” she said.
“I have since been informed that only 85 percent of the traffic flow adheres to the 40km/h speed limit whilst they were being monitored. This still means 15 percent are not adhering to the speed limit.”
As the Moroney family live in constant fear of the road outside their home, they no longer use the front end of the house.
“My husband and I have not slept in the main bedroom since returning home after the first major accident,” she said.
“We have since constructed an urgent retaining wall to endeavour to protect our family and property.
“We live in fear that next time it may not be us but one of our neighbours or worse, an innocent child crossing the road to get to school.”
The last crash on 3 February this year caused damage to the car parked in the driveway, the garage wall and door, the letterbox and the fence.
“If it was not for the parked car we fear the speeding car would have landed in my neighbour Chris Politis’ house,” she said.
Mr Politis has five children all under the age of 14. He said he is “constantly concerned” for his children’s safety.
“At times, I am concerned about my safety while reversing out of my own driveway,” Mr Politis said. “It is a 40km/h area and on many occasions vehicles do not travel at a safe speed around the bend.
“There have been many occasions that I have looked behind me and as far as the eye can see to ensure it is safe to reverse and before you know it I have a vehicle tail gating me due to their excessive speed.”
The state of the road makes resident Nicole Fletcher feel ‘uneasy, nervous and concerned’ for the safety of herself and her children.
Many have contacted the City of Casey with their concerns of road safety within the immediate area.
Residents believe the cause of the crashes have been because of ‘inadequate’ major road infrastructure, the increased volume of traffic through the residential estate, speed and driver distraction.
“The population growth in Casey combined with the development towards Clyde, has meant our area has become a cut through from Clyde Road to Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road,” neighbour Bianca Hyde said.
“Our end of The Promenade was never this busy as the traffic funnelled up Robinswood Parade, however, speed devices have seen the traffic come our way.”
Mrs Moroney said the City of Casey has informed them that there is no immediate plan to develop Glasscocks Road and has no plans to attend to the major road infrastructure to ease the volume of residential traffic.
“In our original plans when I built my home over 20 years ago it showed there was a proposed road to run straight down where Glasscocks Road ends at Casey Central,” Mrs Moroney said.
“If this road was developed it would ease major road traffic from entering the residential area.”
City of Casey has proposed to install rubber speed humps on each of the two approaches to the bend outside of the property.
“The rubber speed hump to be located on the southern approach will be installed in the next few weeks following consultation with the adjoining properties,” City of Casey city design and construction manager Trevor Griffin said.
“For the eastern approach, a new light will need to be installed approximately midway between the bend and the roundabout to enhance night time visibility.”
Mr Griffin said the local power authority will arrange for the installation of the light, after which time the speed hump will be installed.
“Following discussions with the resident we have prioritised these works due to the nature of the concerns raised,” he said.
