Belrose blackspot Pringle, Haigh avenues: Residents fear someone will die if road not fixed
A notorious intersection on the northern beaches where drivers regularly lose control of their cars has become the focus of a community push to keep people safe.
Manly
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A community push is on for authorities to fix a notorious road accident black spot where dozens of people have been injured and a woman nearly died.
The frustrated family of Lorraine Gooden, who was mown down by a car while walking on the footpath, are pleading with Northern Beaches Council to make the intersection safer before someone is killed.
And a resident living at the corner of Pringle and Haigh avenues says she is fed up with seeing vehicles slewing off the road into her property.
“I’m that stressed out,” said Pat Ridden, who has lived at the T-junction for 52 years.
“The road is so badly designed they must have made a mistake with the original survey,” Mrs Ridden said. “A section of the nature strip, on the bend, sticks out too far, and drivers see it at the last moment.”
Last Thursday afternoon a man on his P plates lost control of his car as it entered a slight downhill right-hand bend heading north on Pringle Ave. The bend is also at the junction with Haigh Ave.
The car left the road and mounted the kerb before sliding sideways across the nature strip and smashing down the brick fence around Mrs Ridden’s garden.
She said the same thing has happened dozen of times before.
“I’ve come outside and found a girl with serious head injury in the back seat of a car after it hit a tree that once stood on the media strip,” she said.
“I’ve had a builder’s trailer come flying through the fence.
“My husband Graham was nearly hit by a car full of young men while he was mowing the lawn.”
The car hit Mrs Ridden’s brick wall at the same spot where Mrs Gooden was hit by an out-of-control car in May last year.
She was struck by a Mercedes driven by Monica Louise Mecham, who was five times over the limit. The disability and aged care worker drove with a blood alcohol reading of 0.278 before she headed to work at 9.30am.
When Mecham tried to negotiate the right-hand bend on Pringle Ave, her hatchback left the road and hit Mrs Gooden, 46, from behind.
Mrs Gooden’s head shattered the car’s windscreen before she was thrown 10 metres into the low brick wall by the impact.
She spent 10 days in Royal North Shore Hospital for treatment to a fractured left wrist and facial lacerations. She also had surgery on her left shoulder and was left with some memory loss due to a traumatic brain injury.
Mecham was convicted of high-range drink-driving ands is now serving a 12-month Intensive Corrections Order and a 10-month driving disqualification.
After hearing abut the most recent incident at the intersection, Mrs Gooden’s husband Nick emailed the mayor Michael Regan and three councillors, to tell them that “clearly ‘speed’ signs are not slowing anyone down”.
“Why do we have to wait for a fatality before something is done,” he said.
The council has replaced 50km/h speed signs near the intersection with yellow 35km/h advisory signs.
“We’ve been told that these signs will slow people down, but I think the council is naive if it thinks people will take any notice,” Mr Gooden said.
Council CEO Ray Brownlee said it was aware of “the safety issues at this intersection”.
“We have conducted a traffic survey of the intersection and road alignment options are being investigated for potential safety upgrades,” Mr Brownlee said.
“It is planned to take potential traffic calming options at the intersection to Northern Beaches Council Local Traffic Committee later this year after a period of public consultation.”
The mayor also told Mr Gooden on Tuesday that he had asked staff to also advise the council’s Community Safety Committee, which also includes representatives from the police, of the incident.