Thousands back petition to improve country roads after death of 19-year-old Poppy Crozier

A petition has been signed by thousands of people calling for upgrades to the country road where 19-year-old Poppy Crozier was killed in a horror smash on Friday.

Tributes for Poppy Crozier are flowing on social media after she died in a car crash on the weekend. Picture: Supplied

Thousands of people have signed a petition to make country roads safer following the death of 19-year-old Poppy Crozier on a major highway on Friday.

The petition, created by Megan Quick the day after the incident and signed by more than 4500 people, calls for “change to our country roads”.

“It is cruel to family, friends, and loved ones to fear for the life of others due to a single road that has not been maintained and has been neglected,” Ms Quick wrote on the campaign page of the Change.org petition.

“As a South Australian 19-year-old, I refuse to take another loss of our community without putting up a fight for safer roads.”

Poppy Crozier from Keith lost her life at the scene of a collision between her Mazda station wagon, a Holden ute and a truck on the Dukes Hwy at Ki Ki about 6.45pm on Friday. Picture: Instagram

Tatiara councillor and friend of the Crozier family Miles Hannemann has made an urgent call for a “massive upgrade” to the Dukes Hwy to save lives.

“The traffic has increased in the last 10, 20, 30 years and the road hasn’t changed,” Mr Hannemann said.

“Why wouldn’t you be in favour of something that makes your life better?”

He supports permanent policing of the Dukes Hwy “until we get it duplicated”.

“It’s sad that it has got to this.”

Another stopgap solution Mr Hannemann suggested before upgrades to the road would be to “reduce the speed limit to 100” after he said he regularly sees motorists speeding along the highway.

Poppy died at the scene of the smash at Ki Ki, 145km southeast of Adelaide, after her silver Mazda station wagon crashed along with a blue Holden ute and B-double truck, just after 6.45pm on Friday.

The smash, on an overtaking stretch of the Dukes Hwy between Tailem Bend and Coonalpyn, was among a spate of four deaths in a horror 24 hours on the roads, forcing authorities to renew road safety pleas.

RAA has also called for upgrades to major country roads including the Dukes Hwy in the lead-up to the state budget.

They are asking for $800m over four years to “progress duplication of the Augusta, Sturt and Dukes Highways”, RAA senior manager of safety Charles Mountain said.

“Duplicating these high-speed roads will make them significantly safer and we’re keen to see this work progress as soon as possible.”

Police are focusing on the ute driver, 18, of Murray Bridge as family and friends paid tribute to Poppy, a former Wilderness boarding student who was “the most beautiful girl”.

Poppy Crozier from Keith lost her life at the scene of a collision between her Mazda station wagon, a Holden ute and a truck on the Dukes Hwy at Ki Ki about 6.45pm on Friday. Picture: Instagram

Officers appealed for dashcam footage or witnesses “to the manner of driving of the ute prior to the crash”.

Locals believed Poppy was an “innocent driver”.

Police said the ute, with personalised SA number plates, was believed to have overtaken heavy vehicles before the crash as the teen drove west towards Adelaide. It is understood an “open line of inquiry” is whether he overtook the semi at a wrong spot or misjudged distances, causing it to veer into Poppy as she travelled east.

No charges have been laid.

Poppy’s life was the 57th life lost on South Australian roads this year, compared to 33 at the same time last year.