ROAD SAFETY - Main South Road / Malpas Road

[B-Mack]

After hearing of the second fatality within three months (and witnessing the first, shortly after it occurred) at the intersection of Main South Road and Malpas, surely it's beyond time to have something done.

This stretch of road is notoriously dangerous, between Aldinga Road (Port Road) and Malpas Road.
You have a 100kph zone, bad corners, no lighting, extreme undulation (that causes cars to bounce around sometimes towards traffic in the overtaking lane) and the end of an overtaking lane where people often speed past the last slow traffic.

Both of the fatalities in the last three months have been similar in nature, where a car has 'wandered' into oncoming traffic in darkness.

As a regular traveler along this road, there have been times when I cannot see and follow the road clearly, it is only by familiarity that I know where the road goes, that said I have still 'wandered' towards oncoming traffic due to misjudging the center of the road - Case in point: Sunday evening in the rain I could not see the road markings at all and opted to be as close to the road edge as possible.

The road in this area has been bad for as long as I can remember and has always been a section of road I do not enjoy driving on, they have patched the undulations previously - only to have them reoccur worse than before.

This section of road needs an urgent upgrade, lighting and the undulations repaired before there are more accidents, injuries and fatalities.

If the state government is serious about road safety and reducing the road toll, then they need to address this and other problem sections of road.

Lowering the speed limits and advertising for driver awareness can only go so far.