Yarra Valley road: Melba Highway bend outside Yering Station Winery needs speed reduction
Serious injuries, truck rollovers, bus crashes and too many bingles to remember — is this one of the Yarra Valley’s worst accident spots?
Outer East
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A baby remains in a critical condition in hospital after a major car crash on a treacherous Yarra Valley highway bend
The months-old boy was flown to hospital after a head-on crash between a Volkswagen Golf hatchback and a four-wheel-drive on the Melba Highway outside Yering Station winery on Friday, July 3.
But this was not an isolated case with traffic accidents happening constantly on the 100km/h “hidden” bend coming out of Yarra Glen, locals say.
Only weeks before a semi-trailer full of timber tipped over, scattering its load across the road with emergency services forced to close all lanes.
But police and locals say they have previously alerted VicRoads to the urgent safety issues and pleaded for a speed reduction.
Yering Station event manager Olivia Haupt said bingles and truck rollovers were constant outside the winery.
Ms Haupt said she believed the winery’s director had made numerous complaints to the state’s road authority after past tragic incidents.
“We don’t see it (happen), we hear it and then we see the aftermath — constantly,” she said.
She said serious accidents happened at least once a month and those were only the ones the staff knew about because the roads were blocked off to customers.
“A lot of trucks rollover, which happens constantly. They take the corner too fast and it could be foggy,’’ she said.
“It should not be 100km/h.”
She said the bend was hidden and not obvious especially to those people who were unfamiliar with Yarra Valley roads.
“If you’re coming out of Yarra Glen and you’ve never driven that road before, and it could be foggy, they don’t see it coming,” Ms Haupt said.
Yarra Glen police Sergeant Richard Coulson said police had been trying to get the speed limit reduced and had a proposal before the authority for a 20km/h reduction down to 80km/h.
“There was a bus into a telegraph pole about 18 months ago,” Sgt Coulson said.
“I think that put the power out in the area for a day.”
He said there had been several significant incidents.
“Driver fatigue, long drives or just not knowing the location, sometimes rain and wet conditions, especially at night can contribute,” Sgt Coulson said.
VicRoads has been contacted for comment.
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