The state government has provided a safety update regarding Walhalla Road as they flag possible improvements to safety.
The update comes in the wake of two major crashes occurring within weeks on a stretch of road in the town of Walhalla.
In the first incident in June, 19-year-old Declan Day died and three other teenagers were injured when the vehicle they were in slid off a cliff, falling 21 metres.
In July, another car with two occupants fell off the same stretch of road, plunging 10 metres and escaping with injuries.
Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll said a safety audit had been conducted.
“Our crews have worked closely with Victoria Police and independent road safety experts to identify safety improvements on Walhalla Road at the recent location,” Mr Carroll said.
“New signage has been installed following a recent safety audit and we plan to widen the road and install safety barriers to further improve safety.”
A Regional Roads Victoria crew and Victoria Police carried out a joint site inspection of the crash site in July 2022 to investigate how safety could be improved. Since this inspection, crews had added additional signage and foliage trimming to improve visibility of signs and installed a large ‘Curve Warning’ sign with a 25km/h ‘Advisory Speed Limit’ and ‘Reduce Speed’ message.
Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing welcomed the new measures.
“Additional signage and foliage trimming is going to go a long way to enhancing safety on this stretch of road, while we work on planning for a permanent solution.”
Regional Roads Victoria will conduct further engineering work to widen the road shoulder, while planning work for the installation of safety barrier has begun.
Line marking and road resurfacing will also be completed. Is it understood that given the narrow section of the road at this location, specialised barriers will be required. Work to install the barriers is expected to start in coming months following completion of detailed planning and site assessments. Drivers are urged to take extra care and drive to the conditions, particularly in areas where speeds are reduced.
Baw Baw Shire Council mayor Michael Leaney, who is from Walhalla, had joined community members in calling for a safety barrier to be installed in 2017 after a similar crash occurred. Cr Leaney told the Latrobe Valley Express at the time that “given that there has been a number of accidents at this same location where vehicles have left the road it is an obvious place for safety barriers to be installed”.
“Anything that goes over that cliff face drops 15 metres below the road,” he said.
“Do we have to wait for a death until action is taken by VicRoads?”
Mr Leaney told the ABC last month that the advice given from Regional Roads Victoria after he had written a request for safety barriers was that installing barriers was too much of an engineering challenge.
Emergency vehicles called out to a car that slid off a cliff on Walhalla Road last month. Photo: Erica & District Fire Brigade
