By Tate Papworth
Brimbank Highway Patrol officers have vowed to continue heavily patrolling the Western Ring Road after last week’s fatal crash left members devastated.
The man who was killed was a passenger in a truck which stopped in the emergency lane on the Western Ring Road near Furlong Road, Greensborough-bound on Tuesday.
The man and truck driver were adjusting the straps on their load when the 34-year-old was hit and killed by a passing crane truck.
Motorists using the emergency lane have been the subject of numerous police operations in the past and Brimbank Highway Patrol Sergeant Andy Oakley said the accident had left officers devastated.
“The car was stopped in the emergency lane for a reasonable reason and this has happened,” he said. “We regularly run operations on that exact stretch of road and it’s devastating that this has happened at a spot where we’ve handed out hundreds of tickets to people driving in the emergency lane.
“It’s not that long ago that a similar incident happened on the other side of the freeway where a physically sick man stopped in the emergency lane and was struck by a motorist.”
In a recent operation, police caught 115 drivers using the Greensborough-bound emergency lane on the Western Ring Road at St Albans in a two and a half hour period.
Sergeant Oakley said it was a cause of frustration that the message isn’t getting through.
“Emergency lanes are there for a reason. They’re not there for people to make headway on traffic,” he said.
“Some of the risks people take, just to save 30 seconds is amazing.
“A number of lives have been lost, hundreds of tickets have been issued, all for the sake of saving a miniscule amount of time, if any.
“Two days ago I got a guy going 130km/h in the same stretch of road where the accident happened. People need to see how dangerous their actions can be.”
Sergeant Oakley said police will continue to enforce the law.
“We hand out a large amount of tickets each week and will continue to do so,” he said.
