Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Kialla West Primary School pedestrian crossing

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:53): (2009) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and highlights the lack of action by the Andrews Labor government regarding the dangerous Kialla West Primary School crossing. The action that I seek from the minister is for the minister to provide immediate funding to urgently implement the four short-term, interim safety measures discussed by Regional Roads Victoria (RRV) during a meeting with Kialla West Primary School on Thursday, 26 May 2022. Considering it will be four years in September since a tragic accident at the crossing severely injured a school family, I ask the minister to provide a definitive time line as to when construction will start on a pedestrian underpass, which is the only real option to ensure the safety of students, teachers and parents at the Kialla West Primary School.

The danger that Kialla West Primary School students, staff and families face each day when using the school crossing on the Goulburn Valley Highway is a topic that I have raised many times in this place. Nearly four years after a horrific two-vehicle collision at the crossing badly injured four members of a school family, there have been no meaningful safety upgrades to ensure the safety of pedestrians and drivers. Small safety improvements were made at the school after the September 2018 collision, but the crossing essentially remains as dangerous now as it was back then, and only a pedestrian underpass will remove the chance of another tragic collision.

In July last year Regional Roads Victoria informed Kialla West Primary School that the impact of such a project on the nearby Calder Woodburn Memorial Avenue avenue-of-honour trees would need to be investigated. A letter from Heritage Victoria to RRV dated 4 March 2021 was only recently obtained by the school. It clearly states the need for RRV to submit conceptual designs for the underpass so that any impact on the avenue of honour trees can be considered. In response the government did nothing. In December 2021 in a response to a question from me the minister indicated that the inspections would be carried out and designs submitted to Heritage Victoria for consideration. Six months later the government has still done nothing.

In a meeting with Kialla West Primary School leaders in May 2022 an RRV officer spoke of four interim, short-term safety measures that could be implemented at the crossing to improve safety. No work to implement these measures has commenced. Every day the government fails to act is another day that our children are in danger of serious injury or worse. RRV have suggested interim safety measures at the crossing, and the minister needs to provide funding so they can be implemented immediately. These are only interim measures, and the minister must ensure designs for the pedestrian underpass, the only viable safety option, are completed as soon as possible and submitted to Heritage Victoria.