Lucky escape after Tullamarine Freeway sign crushes car

A Melbourne woman whose car was crushed by a massive falling Tullamarine Freeway sign has spoken of her brush with death, saying it felt like a roller door had come down on her car. WATCH THE VIDEO

A safety check of Victoria’s freeway and motorway signs will be expanded across all of Melbourne as VicRoads continues to grapple with the cause of the terrifying collapse of a sign on the Tullamarine Freeway.

An independent reviewer will also take control of the investigation, with engineers yet to explain what caused the fall that crushed 55-year-old mother Nella Lettieri’s car.

In total 60 gantries across Melbourne will be inspected for safety faults, with 17 of these on CityLink and the Tullamarine Freeway.

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Mrs Lettieri’s family says it is a miracle she walked away with only minor injuries.

The sign, measuring 4x5 metres, fell from a gantry and crushed her car, injuring her neck and arm.

The moment a sign fell on a car on the Tullamarine Freeway. Picture: 9 News Melbourne

Nella Lettieri talks of her near-death experience. Pictures: Channel 9

Mrs Lettieri was lucky to escape with minor injuries. Pictures: Channel 9

Inside her car. Pictures: Channel 9

“Considering the damage … her injuries, it’s honestly a miracle,” her daughter Claudia Lettieri told Seven News.

Mrs Lettieri, who was on her way to the airport to pick up her daughter, told Channel 9: “It was like a roller door had come down right in front of me and just shut and I think I’d gone to swerve thinking, ‘OK, it’s fallen, let me just move to the side’, but it actually fell on me and it just kept falling.”

She said passersby came to her rescue after she couldn’t get out through the window because her car was so badly crushed, saying they helped her out through the passenger door.

No other cars were hit by the sign, which fell about 5.30pm on Tuesday.

Dramatic footage showed the sign falling, initially ­looking as though it would miss the blue vehicle before falling back and crushing it.

The sign fell on the Tullamarine Freeway at Strathmore just before 5:30pm on Tuesday.

VicRoads deputy chief executive Robyn Seymour said crews had inspected six sites on the Tullamarine Freeway and would turn their attention to signs in on bush corridors areas such as the Monash Freeway and Eastern Freeway.

“The investigation is still underway,” she said.

“At this point we are checking similar signs to ensure there are no safety issues until we really understand what has happened.

“Community safety is our number one priority so we have expanded the audit to similar signs and gantries across the whole of the freeway network.”

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Experts from VicRoads and the Major Roads Project Authority have inspected the gantry and will inspect all similarly built signs while they try to find out why this one plummeted on to the road.

Several safety audits have already taken place after Tuesday’s frightening incident. Picture: Channel 9

Safety audits were carried out on several signs on Wednesday night, leading to closures which impacted the Calder Freeway, Bolte Bridge and West Gate Freeway.

The section of freeway where the sign fell was the site of some construction work during the CityLink-Tulla Widening project, but that work was completed in ­November 2017.

MRPA delivery director Graeme Chambers said the first priority was to ensure the rest of the freeway was safe.

“Signs can be affixed by welding and signs can be affixed by bolts,” he said.

“This particular sign is a combination, and therefore part of the investigation is to determine what other signs were affixed in a similar way,” Mr Chambers said.

“What was interesting was the failure was at the connection with the overhead gantry.

“I’ve had 30-plus years of experience as an engineer in the industry and I’m not aware of such an event happening before,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE | A large road sign has fallen down and crushed a car on the Tullamarine Freeway. #7News pic.twitter.com/W7vbMUrKRe

— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) January 8, 2019

Ms Seymour said the organisation’s staff did daily drive-by inspections of equipment along Melbourne’s freeways.

“There was no visible sign this was going to occur,” she said.

“Obviously, something has gone wrong. We really need to understand what that is.

“This is a really rare event.”

Ms Seymour said staff also personally inspected road infrastructure every six months.

But she said it was not yet known when the fallen sign had last been checked.

RACV general manager of public policy Bryce Prosser said: “Drivers are focused on the road and their surrounds and this is something completely unexpected that should never happen,” he said.

“We expect a full investigation to take place in order to understand how this could happen and ensure processes are put in place so it doesn’t happen again.”

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