Community outrage after young girl hit on ‘dangerous’ Greensborough road

Furious Greensborough residents are demanding urgent government action after a 15-year-old schoolgirl was hit crossing a busy road.

Eliza Sadler is fighting for life after being hit by a vehicle while crossing a road in Greensborough. Picture: Supplied

Angry residents in Melbourne’s north are demanding a pedestrian crossing be installed on a busy road used by many students in the wake of a tragic accident that’s left a 15-year-old girl in a critical condition in hospital.

Montmorency Secondary College student Eliza Sadler remains in hospital in intensive care since her accident on May 2, having had two brain surgeries, after she was knocked over by a car as she was getting off a bus and tried to cross five lanes of traffic on Diamond Creek Rd in Greensborough.

A petition for a pedestrian crossing at the road that began months ago has surged to more than 3500 signatures on the back of Eliza’s accident.

Nicola Webb, a friend of the Sadler family, said Eliza‘s mother had been concerned about the lack of road safety at the road her daughter crossed every day for a long time.

“It was a feeling of frustration … the frustration is that no one is listened,” Ms Webb said.

“And now unfortunately, it was her daughter that didn't make it home that night.”

“It's really a waiting game for the family, sitting and waiting for news each day of how things are going,” she said.

Petition organiser Joanne Thom said she had been lobbying for a pedestrian crossing at the “dangerous” road for 18 months, but there had been no action from the government.

“(The government) has to listen to our community, there‘s concerned residents, concerned families, concerned users of the road, all concerned about the safety of our children,” Ms Thom said.

“It's our greatest fear that our child might be involved in an accident and it’s tragic that this has happened.”

In April last year, Vic Roads reduced the speed limit from 80km/h to 70km/h, erected pedestrian warning signs and painted slow down markings on the road.

According to Vic Roads, two casualty crashes have occurred in recent years on the same stretch of road, with one previous accident also resulting in serious injury to pedestrians.

Ms Thom said the added safety measures were not enough.

“It’s a hill … people are doing well over 70 km/h … 70 km/h is still too fast to ask children to navigate across five lanes of traffic to get back home,” she said.

“Local schools all rely upon this route for children to get to and from school safely, at those peak times the speed is issue, visibility is an issue and children have no safe option to cross.

“Without a pedestrian activated set of lights you cannot be certain that the traffic can see you, there‘s bends in the road, there’s vegetation obscuring sight lines.

“It’s very difficult to cross … we want to a safe option for our kids.”

In March, Eltham state Labor MP Vicki Ward received a response to a letter from Roads and Road Safety Minister Melissa Horne that said there were no plans to add a pedestrian crossing.

Ms Thom said the community petition would be taken to parliament to ensure residents’ voices were heard.

“We want the community‘s voice to be heard and taken seriously.”

A Go Fund Me campaign has been set up to raise funds to support Eliza’s family.

Ms Webb said the Sadler family were grateful for all the support they had received so far.

“The community support that they‘ve received since last Tuesday has been absolutely overwhelming and they’re very grateful to everything that everybody’s doing.”

A department of transport spokesperson said the organisation would work with police to assess whether additional road safety improvements could be made.

“Road safety is our top priority,” they said.

“Our thoughts are with those affected by the recent incident at Diamond Creek Rd, Greensborough.”