Finally a life saving solution for Main Arm

It is just another $300,000 funding announcement to most people but for the residents who live on the deadly curve of Main Arm Road between Durrumbul and Settlement Road it is a sign that their night time horrors will soon be coming to an end.

‘Time and time again you hear the screech of brakes and the bang before the cries for help,’ said one local resident Charles Boyle.

‘The work is way overdue. Accidents are happening every couple of weeks. That part of the road is beyond dangerous and it is a basic design fault with both the cambers and the approaches,’ he explains.

This section of Main Arm Road was built when the road was moved to avoid the flood-prone culverts that were a feature of the old Main Arm Road that ran along the valley floor.

However, the bad design of this section of road has led to multiple deaths and serious injuries since it was built.

The trees around the corner have large chunks taken out of them from being hit by cars as does the bridge the corner leads onto, explained Mr Boyle.

‘There was a black spot sign on the corner at one point but that vanished years ago,’ he said.

Multiple deaths

About 30 years ago a woman and her children died at the site after losing control of the car on the corner and just two years some local youths crashed their car into the bridge where it burst into flames. One of them, trying to flee, jumped over the rail of the bridge landing seven metres below and breaking his back.

‘It is really traumatic and stressful,’ said Mr Boyle.

‘Most of us have no training to deal with these serious accidents yet we are inevitably the first on the scene.

‘This funding will save lives. The drivers often come to grief through very little fault of their own and the impact on locals and the people in the accidents is devastating.’