Lights for death junction

By Sarah Schwager
A NOTORIOUS Hallam intersection will undergo works after long-awaited funding from the State Government was announced this week.
Hampton Park’s Lynda Cartmill has been lobbying for traffic lights to be installed at the intersection of Hallam South Road and Empire Way and Keppel Drive since her husband Colin was killed in a car accident there in February last year.
Mrs Cartmill was ecstatic after she heard the $1.7 million funding had been allocated for the lights.
“This is great. It is really good news,” she said. “I have said the whole time that this was never about me.”
Narre Warren South MP Dale Wilson announced the funding for the project on Monday.
“This funding will be welcomed by the community and will improve safety at the intersection which has had 21 casualty crashes in the five year period to December 2005,” Mr Wilson said.
A VicRoads spokeswoman said the project to install the traffic lights would begin mid next year and was expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Mrs Cartmill said she hoped everyone stayed safe in the meantime.
She said drivers still had to keep a close lookout when crossing the intersection or merging into Hallam South Road.
At the time of Mr Cartmill’s accident, local traders labelled the intersection a death trap, saying there was at least one accident a month in the same spot.
Earlier this month, Mrs Cartmill witnessed a car crash as she was replacing flowers at the intersection. Two cars collided as one failed to give way when emerging from Empire Way across Hallam South Road into Keppel Drive.
“It was horrifying,” Mrs Cartmill said. “It all happened while I was standing there.”
Mrs Cartmill said she was just glad that the State Government had finally listened to residents’ concerns and was doing something about the fatal intersection.
“It is just such a relief,” she said.