Car Accident Canberra Today
Around 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, a red Toyota hatchback and a white Toyota van collided on the road just south of Hazel Hawke Avenue in Canberra’s west. A 61-year-old man from Bangladesh, a 54-year-old woman, and a 21-year-old man were pronounced dead at the scene. Both drivers are in the hospital, with the car driver in critical condition. All four adults had to be extracted from the car using the “jaws of life.” The deaths yesterday bring the ACT’s road toll for the year to 17 and come just one week after two teenage girls were killed on the Monaro Highway in Hume.
Last week, a 38-year-old woman was also killed in a head-on collision on the Barton Highway between Yass and Murrumbateman. In addition, a 17-year-old driver was killed in a two-vehicle accident on the King’s Highway near Bungendore just two weeks ago. While the cause of the Coppins Crossing crash is still being investigated, Detective Superintendent Mick Calatzis is urging all drivers to slow down.
“It’s an ongoing investigation, we won’t speculate at this stage, but lower speeds mean people are safer on the roads,” he said.
“It’s just common sense; slow down. One or two minutes to get there later won’t hurt anybody. You need to come home alive to your families.”
Police ask anyone who witnessed the accident or has dashcam footage to contact Crime Stoppers.
Reference Source: ABC news, news.com
Residents Raise Safety Concerns After Car Accident In Canberra
According to Bill Gemmell of the Weston Creek Community Council, residents have raised safety concerns about Coppins Crossing for over a decade.
“The point at which the collision occurred, the signage is ambiguous. It’s pretty much a construction track being used almost as an arterial road,” he said.
“It’s the main link between Woden, Weston Creek, Molonglo, and the western parts of Belconnen; it’s got some substantial traffic.
“It goes from quite a wide two-lane road [John Gorton Drive] down to a narrow, single-lane each-way road [Coppins Crossing Road] very quickly, and it’s on the downhill.”
Work to widen the road and build a new bridge over Coppins Crossing is set to begin next year, with completion expected in 2025. While residents are pleased with the progress, Mr Gemmell claims it took more than ten years of campaigning for the ACT and federal governments to commit to the project.
“This is a bigger issue with Canberra, and when we develop large areas of land, we don’t put the infrastructure in before people move in,” he said.
“More than 10,000 people are living in the Molonglo Valley now; you’ve got 20,000 in Weston Creek and the Belconnen growth as well.
“But the employment centres are in Tuggeranong and Civic and Belconnen, and you’ve got this narrow little goat track.”
Parliamentary Inquiry Into Dangerous Driving
The Weston Creek Community Council is also one of several local organisations that have submitted comments to the ACT government’s parliamentary inquiry into dangerous driving. Mr Gemmell believes a permanent police presence in Weston Creek
and Molonglo Valley is desperately needed.
“People are telling us that they don’t feel safe driving, walking around the community because the dangerous drivers have got some sort of primacy in the hierarchy at the moment, and the balance needs to twist the other way,” he said.
“It’s broader than the current spate of fatalities. It’s about people feeling safe, safe to walk across the road, go for a walk, wander around their neighbourhood, to let their kids go out on their own to ride their bikes to the park.”
He claims that the group wants changes to vehicle licencing and more vehicle seizures, with proceeds from the sale of seized vehicles going to a victim support scheme. On October 26, the Justice and Community Safety Committee will hold public hearings for the inquiry.
Reference Source: ABC news
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