Speed Campaigner To Fight On
Illawarra Mercury
Friday October 17, 2008
DESPITE 15 years of unsuccessful campaigning for the speed limit to be reduced on Shellharbour Rd, at Windang, resident Greg Hesse will not give up the fight.
It was a matter of lives and road safety, Mr Hesse told the Mercury, while citing RTA statistics that showed since the campaign began, there had been almost 200 crashes between Boundary Rd and the Windang Bridge, including two fatalities."It is dangerous, there have been hundreds of accidents," Mr Hesse said. "There are three main factors in crashes: wet weather, speeding and darkness."Most accidents here have happened on dry road surface conditions in daylight hours, so the only other factor is speed."When the RTA lifted the speed limit from 60km/h to 70km/h in 1993, residents and shopkeepers campaigned for the decision to be reversed."We have tried everything we know and we have a file about two inches thick," Mr Hesse said, adding that the road was the only residential and commercial strip in the Illawarra with a 70km/h speed limit. That made the Windang village unfriendly to pedestrians, he said, especially schoolchildren from the nearby Windang Public School, who had to cross Shellharbour Rd when walking to and from school.An RTA spokesman said yesterday the authority had completed a review of the road in February. "The review found the road was appropriately speed zoned at 70km/h," the spokesman said."The assessment considered various factors when determining the most appropriate speed limit. "These included roadside development, pedestrian volumes, travel speeds, road alignment, traffic characteristics and crash history."
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury