By Tate Papworth
Residents of a Sunshine aged care facility fear a failure to fund traffic lights at a dangerous intersection is putting their lives at risk.
Two years ago, a resident of Federation Residential Village Sunshine was struck by a car while crossing Ballarat Road and is now confined to a wheelchair.
Despite a two-year battle and support from local MPs, Victoria Police, VicRoads and Brimbank council, the state government has failed to fund traffic lights at the Hulett Street and Ballarat Road intersection.
Village chairperson David Richardson said the intersection desperately needed addressing.
“We’re going to keep pressuring for as long as we need to,” he said. “This is a clear safety issue and we don’t want anyone else hurt.
“Two years ago, one of the residents of the village was crossing Ballarat Road to catch a bus and was hit by a car,” he said.
“When police attended, they were treating it as a fatal accident. As it turned out, the resident survived, however he’s now permanently confined to a wheelchair.”
Mr Richardson said the area was a confusing mess.
“The problem is currently, to come out of Federation Village, you have to cross Ballarat Road to get to the bus stop,” he said.
“However, in order to negotiate that, you’ve got 10 different directional lanes of traffic. You’ve got traffic making U-turns, the traffic either side on Ballarat Road, traffic coming out of Wasley Street, traffic coming out of Hulett Street and traffic in the service roads. There’s all sorts of confusion.
“We’ve sought assistance from VicRoads and Brimbank council, who agree there is a problem in this area,” Mr Richardson said.
“We even had a member of the Brimbank Highway patrol tell us it was one of the biggest safety concerns he has in the area.”
Mr Richardson said VicRoads drew up plans to fix the intersection but a state budget funding bid was unsuccessful.
“The suggestion is to close off the gap where people are making U-turns out of Carrington Drive, making traffic come up to Hulett Street where traffic lights will be installed.
“Costing was done and plans submitted to the state government, but unfortunately funding wasn’t provided.”
Mr Richardson said the residents would not give up on the fight for traffic lights.
