YOU CAN VOTE ON THIS ONE.
http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/5226243/wire-ropes-to-rollout-on-regional-roads-despite-concerns-poll/#comments
Wednesday, 14 February 2018
Thursday, 8 February 2018
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS & WRB
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
ROAD TRAUMA COMMITTEE
Another wire rope barrier victim on the Calder Highway. A motorcyclist in November 2017. A car driver in January 2018. The more wire VicRoads rolls out, the more Victorians will die or be horribly injured at wire rope barrier crash sites.
VicRoads publicly admits error regarding emergency service vehicle access to properties and exposure to danger attending road crashes. VicRoads says it will “retrofit” new wire rope barriers at a cost of millions of tax dollars better spent making country roads safe.
VicRoads ignores its’ own safety guidelines when installing wire rope barriers and does not remove obsolete, dangerous anchor points. These are facts.
There is no evidence to suggest wire rope barrier is dangerous road authorities do not collect that data. Documented in Victorian Parliamentary Inquiries. See attached.
Vested interests advise Road Safety Minister Donnellan MP on wire rope barrier.
Damien Codognotto OAM
Independent Riders Group
Melbourne
Wednesday, 7 February 2018
STOP WIRE ROPE BARRIER 2
Wire rope barriers
| Page 3 |  | ||||
07 February 2018
| ASSEMBLY | STEPH RYAN MP | ||||
Ms RYAN (Euroa) (09:41:07) — I today call on the Premier and the Minister for Roads and Road Safety to immediately review the tragic death of a young woman whose car hit a wire rope fence on the Calder Freeway last week. I have been told that the wire rope barrier was installed behind a fixed rail W-beam, which resulted in the driver crashing and sliding along the rope barrier and into the end of the rail barrier.
In December I stood in this house and asked the minister to halt the rollout of wire rope barriers until fears about safety could be addressed, and in January I wrote to him again outlining my concerns. I have since been told that the minister's rushed rollout of wire rope barriers has resulted in projects which do not meet safety standards and that there are not enough people to inspect and supervise the works. Trevor Owen, the assistant chief officer for the south-east region of the Country Fire Authority (CFA), has also gone public with his concerns. On 10 January he said:
Treating one safety risk can create another. Long-distance wire rope barriers along our major roads will have a consequence on firefighter safety and delay access to fires in some cases along road sides.
If that was not enough, last Friday my office received a phone call from a motorist travelling on the Hume Highway to Melbourne who saw that people were mowing the median strip between the dual carriageways with push mowers because they could not get tractors behind the wire rope barriers. Instead of investigating these concerns or agreeing to my request to halt the rollout, the minister's response was to label country people 'dingbats'.
STOP WIRE ROPE BARRIER 1
Wire rope barriers
| Page 4274 | | ||||
12 December 2017
| ASSEMBLY | STEPH RYAN | ||||
Ms RYAN — I also wish to raise the issue of wire rope barriers. I ask the government to halt their rollout in my area to allow time for further investigation and consultation with the community so that the barriers fulfil their purpose of heightened safety as opposed to heightened risk, which a number of community members in my area currently feel they are presenting.
Tuesday, 6 February 2018
LIES & STATISTICS 3
Please correct me if I'm wrong but it looks to me like that truck crossed to the wrong side of the road.
That means Minister Donnellan's claim that wire rope barrier stops head-on crashes is questionable at best.
I doubt this type of crash will be uncommon in the months ahead.
Damien
IRG
https://www.facebook.com/gippslandtimes/posts/10156242456637578
That means Minister Donnellan's claim that wire rope barrier stops head-on crashes is questionable at best.
I doubt this type of crash will be uncommon in the months ahead.
Damien
IRG
https://www.facebook.com/gippslandtimes/posts/10156242456637578
 |
| See earlier post for my response to this Geelong (Vic) Advertiser story by Road Safety Minister Luke Donnellan. |
LIES & STATISTICS 1
LUKE DONNELLAN MP
MINISTER FOR ROADS & ROAD SAFETY
Oh dear Luke.
What a disappointment to see you put out a story like the one attached.
Either VicRoads is using you as a ventriloquist doll or this is electioneering.
According to this, your government is committed to spending $1.1 billion of our money. You are committed to rolling out 2000 kms of these deadly fences (wire rope barrier). All this while country roads are dangerously neglected.
“Flexible safety barriers (WRB) are proven to reduce run-off-road and head-on crashes by as much as 85%.”
How proven? Who did the study(ies). Who paid for it/them? What was the methodology? Can we have our independent expert look at them?
What an extraordinary statistic!
“On the Princes Freeway alone there were eight recorded hits to flexible safety barriers (WRB) last year. That’s eight potentially life threatening crashes that have been avoided.”
Based on what? VicRoads WRB repairs diary? The damaged WRB that takes weeks, sometimes months, to fix. How do they/you know that these repairs were from “potentially life threatening crashes”?
Have you seen any comparisons from the number of dents on w-beam and marks on concrete barriers? How do you know those barriers did not perform better when hit than WRB did in these, or other, “recorded hits” ?
While w-beam and concrete barriers can still offer some safety to road users after damage from a hit, WRB does not. Damaged WRB is more dangerous to road users than no barrier at all. The whole structure is weakened with each post flattened.
As for the VicRoads spin doctors myth about motorcyclists being afraid “that they will be cut by wire ropes if they come off their bike(s). Let me stress that there is no credible evidence, anywhere in the world, to support this myth.”
There is no credible evidence for two reasons:
1. Road authorities do not collect evidence on barrier types involved in road crashes in Victorian conditions. The very first recommendation of the 2012 Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry was to establish a road crash data authority independent of road authorities. VicRoads wrote a lot of the “whole of government response “ to that recommendation. Why make such recommendation? Because our road safety data is inadequate and unreliable.
2. The definition of credible cuts out any evidence VicRoads deems not to be credible. We road users only get to hear what VicRoads wants us to hear you say.
As for the “chess cutter" myth about wire ropes. Most motorcycle & scooter riders know that it’s the posts in the wire rope barrier fence that mains and kills.
VicRoads knows the hazard too. That’s why they pad the WRB posts. VicRoads also knows that the WRB pads at highway speeds and lower, are like hitting a small tree …. except there’s dozens of them lined up to end your life. The pads are VicRoads admission of the danger they create for two-wheel road users with every metre of WRB they install.
To voters Minister, it looks like you do not run VicRoads, they run you.
Given the hideously expensive WRB roll out, with all the ongoing costs and the deadly condition of way too many country roads and recent fatal crashes on the Calder Highway Minister, I reckon you go to the 2018 Victorian election with blood on your hands.
Damien Codognotto OAM
Independent Riders Group
Melbourne
Mobile 0419 846 855
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