Drivers need to slow down on Sayers Road with VicRoads having slashed the speed limit following 60 casualty crashes in the past five years.
VicRoads has cut the speed limit between Palmers and Derrimut roads, from 70km/h to 60km/h in line with the organisation’s ‘towards zero’ road safety strategy.
The new limit came into effect on October 14 following the crashes, which included two fatalities in the past 12 months and 25 serious injuries over the 5.2-kilometre section of road.
Casualty crashes are defined as a crash that results in at least one road user being injured or killed.
In January, 19-year-old Natasha Pigot died when her car was hit from behind as she waited to turn right from Sayers Road into Palmers Road.
Both cars then spun and were clipped by a third vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.
Acting Senior Sergeant Ely Reynolds, of the Westgate highway patrol, said increased residential development, increased pedestrian activity and nearby schools were driving up the collision rate along that stretch of road.
“Any reduction is going to help; we endorsed it as a good initiative,” he said.
Last Friday, VicRoads also reduced the speed limit along Hopkins Road between Dohertys and Greigs roads from 100km/h to 80km/h.
This 7.5-kilometre section, which becomes Derrimut Road from Boundary Road onwards, is a major thoroughfare between Wyndham and Melton.
In the past five years, police have recorded 32 casualty crashes along the stretch of Hopkins Road, including three fatalities and nine serious injuries.
Melton divisional road policing adviser Ross Burbidge said speeding and inappropriate overtaking were causing the bulk of the collisions.
“People take risks because they’re in a 100km/h zone and don’t see the oncoming vehicles and that’s when we have head-on collisions,” he said.
“It’s still only a two-way, single-lane freeway.”
Acting Senior Sergeant Reynolds said no other speed reductions were on the cards for Wyndham.
