Residents are begging Wagga City Council to fix Lake Albert Road, which they describe as a fatality waiting to happen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
One of them is Maranda Hutchins, who was T-boned while trying to exit her driveway on the way to work.
In other news
She said a large F100 car had obscured her view of the highway, meaning she was unable to see the oncoming car until it was too late.
"I couldn't go to work that day because I was so shaken up. I had to go to hospital because I hit my head in the crash. I got concussion," Ms Hutchins said.
"I'm so scared just to even pull out of my driveway. I'm so cautious pulling out now and I'll wait until I'm definitely safe, because I'm scared pulling out into traffic."
She said poor visibility was a continual problem down that stretch of road, due to the configuration of the parking strip, the trees, and the damaged lighting.
Her partner Jacob Chapple has written to council three times demanding a fix for that stretch of road, threatening them with legal action on one occasion.
"We've lived in this unit complex for 18 months and I reckon there's probably been a dozen accidents, one of which was us," Mr Chapple said.
"Lake Albert Road is a black spot. Someone's going to get killed, it's going to happen, and council needs to take responsibility for this road before it happens."
Mr Chapple said children were most at risk, with Sturt Public School just down the block and several areas where children crossed the road.
In June last year an 8-year-old boy was hit by a car outside the school, although he only received abrasions to his arm, hands, and face.
On one occasion Mr Chapple saw a crash happen right in front of his eyes, when a car got rear-ended right on his driveway while it was trying to pull onto the parking strip.
He said many of these crashes happen in the night time, due in part to the poor visibility caused by all the dysfunctional lights.
He also said they were awoken at night by hooning P-platers who would drag race down the strip.
Mr Chapple is lobbying council for better street lights, a 50 kilometre per hour speed limit, fewer vision-obscuring trees, and maintenance on the pot-hole ridden road.
Council was contacted for comment but was unable to respond by time of writing.
However, they did point to 2019 statistics from the Centre for Road Safety, which showed only six reported crashes since 2015.
Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
