Barker MP Tony Pasin and South East leaders demand Sturt and Dukes highway upgrades

Ahead of the looming federal election, Coalition MP Tony Pasin has called on his government to fund the duplication of two dangerous highways.

Two dangerous highways that have claimed the lives of nine people in the past two years must be brought into this century to help stop the carnage on South Australian roads, regional leaders say.

Sections of the Sturt and Dukes highways have been the scenes of multiple accidents in the past few years, many of them fatal.

The single-lane Dukes Highway, stretching from Adelaide to the Victorian border, is notorious for head-ons and is widely considered one of the most dangerous roads in the state. Nine people have died on the Dukes and Sturt highways since 2020.

In August 2019, two men died in a fiery head-on truck crash on the Sturt Highway near Truro – an incident police described as “horrendous”.

On the eve of the May federal election, Barker MP Tony Pasin demanded his Coalition government fronts up the cash to duplicate the two busy freight routes.

“It’s time that we look to upgrade the Sturt and Dukes highways, bringing them into the 21st century,” he said.

“I spend too much time on the roads, I see too many accidents. The duplication of these highways is the answer.”

Mr Pasin previously criticised the federal government’s approach to fixing regional roads as “putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds”.

The scene of a fatal head-on truck collision on the Sturt Highway near Truro in 2019. Picture: Tom Huntley

Barker MP Tony Pasin is urging the state and federal governments to duplicate the Sturt and Dukes highways.

Under Mr Pasin’s proposal, both highways would be duplicated to the Victorian border, separating traffic in opposite directions.

The state’s peak motoring body, the RAA, has consistently called for $7.6bn to be spent over 25 years for crucial road projects, including the duplication of the Sturt and Dukes highways.

Clayton Scott, who runs a prominent funeral service in the Barossa Valley, said the proposed upgrades would save lives.

“I know only too well the devastation and disaster that occurs from motor vehicle accidents,” he said.

“Separation of the opposing traffic flows will reduce head-on crashes, allowing simpler traffic movements, which would lead to less opportunity for impatience and risk taking.” Loxton Waikerie mayor Leon Stasinowsky said the Sturt Highway was not suitable for B-double trucks and road trains.

“These vehicles are diverted off the Sturt Highway through the townships of Moorook and Loxton (past) schools, playgrounds and aged care facilities, which is unacceptable to the local community,” he said.

Coorong mayor Paul Simmons also backed Mr Pasin’s demands, saying the capacity of the Dukes Highway did not “reflect its use as SA’s busiest regional freight corridor”.

Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce was contacted for comment.

Labor state government Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis and he was “wary” of Mr Pasin’s demands, coming “on the eve of an election”.