Some people would never have a reason to call triple-0. Jason Stangherlin is sent scrambling to call emergency services at least once a month.
For six years the sales consultant has worked in a Springvale lighting store that overlooks Victoria’s worst intersection for road injuries.
The screech of tyres and sudden smash of glass is a familiar sound at the enormous spaghetti intersection where, with 10 traffic lights, the Princes Highway meets two major arterial roads.
Only last Saturday a car was T-boned on the corner of Centre and Springvale roads. Three years ago Mr Stangherlin saw the aftermath of a messy 80km/h crash that left a man trapped and hanging out of the windscreen of his van.
He said many of the crashes were caused by people running red lights or not paying attention to where they were going. His advice is to avoid the intersection at all costs.
“There’s not enough signage, direction or line marking and it’s too confusing. There needs to be something put in place to put the traffic under or over at some point,” he said.
The intersection has been a black spot for decades, said Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti.
“[The council] is just so sick of it, because there are just so many accidents and fatalities,” he said.
Cr Memeti said a flyover was one potential solution, although such a project had not been recently costed.
He said another option would be to extend nearby Westall Road to the Monash Freeway, which would reduce congestion at the problem intersection.
VicRoads is due to report to roads minister Terry Mulder in the coming months about the best measures to improve the intersection.
A VicRoads spokesman said the state government had spent $109 million on Safer Road Infrastructure Program projects in the past year.
VicRoads crash data analysed by Geoplex’s Liam Densley shows that over the past six years, there have been 31,742 serious crashes on Victoria’s roads, in which 1737 people have been killed and 35,822 people have been hospitalised.
The Age has used this analysis to find the state’s seven worst crash spots.
1. Intersection of Princes Highway, Police Road and Springvale Road in Springvale: 30 crashes and 43 people injured.
Made up of two adjoining intersections, the Springvale Junction funnels a massive 120,00 vehicles a day.
The location is one of the most complex in Melbourne, according to the RACV, and has been an urban black spot for many years. Three people were killed there and almost 200 people injured in just four years to the end of 1999. More recently, there have been alterations to the stop lines.
2. Sayers Road and Tarneit Road in Hoppers Crossing: 12 crashes, one fatality and 17 people injured.
Crashes here have fallen since traffic lights were installed in 2010. The intersection carries about 36,000 vehicles every day.
3. Hallam Road and Ormond Road in Lynbrook: seven crashes, five fatalities and twelve people injured.
Four teenagers lost their lives at this spot in June 2009 after a council request for lights to be installed at the T-junction went unanswered. Tragically another young woman also died at the site two weeks later. It is believed she was distracted by flowers and tributes left on the side of the road.
4. Cranbourne-Frankston Road and Union Road in Langwarrin: 10 crashes, one fatality and 14 people injured.
Changes were made to this intersection in 2013 after one person died and six people were seriously injured within five years. The crashes occurred as motorists made a right hands turns from Cranbourne-Frankston Road.
5. Ballarat Road and Anderson Road in Sunshine: Nine crashes and 15 people injured.
Eight people were injured during a four-vehicle crash at this meeting of two arterial roads in March 2011. A pregnant woman’s waters broke while she was trapped one of the cars. Since then, the government has spent $560,000 on upgrades, including new line markings.
6. Victoria Street and Peel Street in Parkville: 11 crashes and 14 people injured.
This intersection next to the Queen Victoria Market carries about 40,000 vehicles every day. It was upgraded in 2012, including new turning lanes.
7. Maroondah Highway and Mount Dandenong Road in Ringwood: 10 crashes and 14 people injured.
More than a dozen lanes meet at this intersection which is being upgraded at a cost of $500,000 to help it better cope with daily traffic flows of 70,000 vehicles.
Intersections where a large number of people have been injured from a small number of crashes have been excluded, as have intersections where there have been a large number of collisions but which have resulted in a spate of minor injuries not requiring hospitalisation.
