Call for traffic lights to be installed at dangerous Brighton Rd/Edwards St, South Brighton, T-junction
The Transport Department is assessing the need for traffic lights at a dangerous intersection which, according to a supermarket owner, has been the site of at least eight accidents in the past two years.
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The Transport Department is evaluating traffic at a busy South Brighton intersection, on the back of calls for lights to be installed there to avoid someone being killed in a crash.
A DPTI spokesperson said “further assessment” of the Brighton Rd and Edwards St T-junction – which was the location of a serious accident last month – was currently being carried out.
“While a traffic investigation of the intersection’s traffic performance and crash records has deemed the junction to be operating satisfactorily, DPTI acknowledges the community’s desire to have traffic signals installed at this location,” the spokesperson said.
“DPTI is currently undertaking further assessment of the intersection and expects to respond to the City of Holdfast Bay with further information by the end of the month …”
Holdfat Bay councillors Annette Bradshaw and Clare Lindop and Brighton Foodland owner Tim Rugless are lobbying for traffic lights to be installed at the T-junction.
They said motorists wanting to turn right from Edwards St to travel south along Brighton Rd often became impatient and took a risk.
Some frustrated at the wait opted to turn left and do a U-turn, causing traffic to build up.
Mr Rugless said in the past two years he would have seen eight crashes out the front of his supermarket.
“I have been worried about it for many years,” Mr Rugless said.
“There are near misses every day, that is not an exaggeration.
“I just believe it is only a matter of time before the worst result – a fatality – occurs if something is not done.”
He said traffic issues had long been a problem in the area, but had been exacerbated following the completion of a multi-million-dollar redevelopment of the Foodland and the Brighton Central Shopping Centre in early 2018.
“The centre keeps growing and growing,” he said. “It’s not a corner store anymore.”
Mr Rugless has long campaigned for traffic lights at the intersection.
He has previously been told the traffic volume did not warrant lights, however he said the road was getting increasingly busy and he hoped this had changed.
On June 26, a 28-year-old motorcyclist was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries after colliding with a car on Brighton Rd.
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Councillors Lindop and Bradshaw have collected more than 3500 signatures on a petition, calling on the State Government to install lights at the T-junction.
Cr Bradshaw, who has lived in the area since the ’70s, said there were so many near misses “it’s unbelievable”.
“I just feel that honestly, it is just a matter of time before someone is killed and I would just never forgive myself if I hadn’t tried,” Cr Bradshaw said.
Cr Lindop said they would hand the petition to Gibson MP Corey Wingard’s office next week, and ask him to present it to parliament on their behalf.
The petition can be signed at the Brighton Foodland.