Vic: Govt to probe risky drivers at rail crossings

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2004
Vic: Govt to probe risky drivers at rail crossings

MELBOURNE, Aug 6 AAP - A safety study at a suburban level crossing would monitor ways
in which Melbourne drivers flout road rules, the Victorian government said today.

Transport Minister Peter Batchelor said the study had been planned before yesterday's
level crossing accident in Melbourne's north-west, where three people were killed when
an express train hurtled into their car.

Mr Batchelor said the study would test anecdotal evidence that drivers go around boom
gates at crossings to sit stationary on the tracks.

"It's to try and understand why people are prepared to take such dangerous and reckless
risks," he said.

"We are trying to understand that behaviour that apparently occurs all too frequently
on the road and rail network in Melbourne."

The three-month study will begin within a month-long observation at a Springvale crossing,
in Melbourne's south-east, and will ultimately present safety recommendations for crossings.

Meanwhile, Mr Batchelor said there would be no new funding this year to improve the
level crossing at Furlong Road, St Albans, where the triple fatality occurred yesterday
morning.

However, the government would reconsider the priorities of its program to "grade separate"

- put in underpasses or overpasses - at three crossings in the area, Mr Batchelor said.

The Furlong Road crossing was to be tackled last under the current timetable.

"I'll be having discussions with VicRoads and ask them to canvass whether the priorities
between Furlong Rd and Main Rd that were previously announced by the government are still
the desires of the community and still the recommendations of our road safety experts,"

he said.

Mr Batchelor pleaded with Melbourne motorists to follow road rules at level crossings.

"We ask all motorists to desist from (flouting the rules), not because it's illegal
but because it's not safe for them, it's not safe for the rest of the road and train users."

Community and business leaders have long complained about congestion and accidents
at the crossing next to the intersection of Furlong and St Albans roads.

Mr Batchelor said much of what locals were saying about the crossing was "not factual"

although he acknowledged that congestion was a safety issue.

"I'm not rejecting that congestion has played a part in it.

"Congestion on our road network is an issue that people have to learn how to deal with
in a safe way.

AAP nl/dk/tma/de

KEYWORD: CROSSING BATCHELOR LEAD

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