Civil engineers call for $1.2 billion duplication of Augusta Highway after 14 deaths in three years

THE deaths of 14 people over three years on a notorious stretch of road has prompted a call by civil engineers for a $1.2 billion duplication of South Australia’s “Death Corridor”.

Police at the scene of the horrific head-on smash between a car and truck on the Augusta Highway at Crystal Brook. Two children and their grandparents died. Picture: Tom Huntley

• Five have died, 80 been hurt on this ‘road of death’
• Two kids, grandparents killed in horror smash

THE deaths of 14 people over three years on a notorious stretch of road has prompted a call by civil engineers for a $1.2 billion duplication of the Augusta Highway “Death Corridor” between Port Wakefield and Port Augusta.

Civil Contractors’ Federation of South Australia chief executive Phil Sutherland said there had been 61 serious casualties — including 14 fatalities — in at least 31 traffic accidents along the stretch of road in just three years.

Mr Sutherland said duplication of the two-lane road, which links Adelaide to the state’s north, should be a priority for the state and federal governments.

“The road between Port Wakefield and Port Augusta is an absolute death corridor — it’s a disgrace for a national highway,’’ he said.

Mr Sutherland made the call ahead of the regular pre-Christmas increase in traffic on the Augusta Highway.