By BRIDGET COOK
CHERRYHILLS Drive residents have renewed calls for help to put the brakes on hoons in their street after a car smashed through a resident’s front fence last week.
Karen Davis, who has led a push for traffic calming measures in the Brookland Greens street, said a parked car rolled into their front yard last week after it was struck by a hooning vehicle from behind.
Ms Davis said the incident highlighted their safety fears, which they had been conveying to the City of Casey for the past two years.
The group of residents have been calling on the council to implement traffic calming measure along Cherryhills Drive, in the vicinity of Brookland Greens Reserve, which they say is designed like a racetrack.
When the Brookland Greens Skate Park opened last year, the residents also petitioned for a car park at the reserve to stamp out the danger of people parking along the road being hit by hoons.
Ms Davis said the council had since put in non-skid bands around two of the corners and planned to put no-standing signs up along the street, but this was not enough.
Ms Davis said the latest incident was an example that more needed to be done.
“What we always thought would happen has finally happened, but not the way we thought, and praise God no one was actually hurt this time,” she said.
“We were lucky that no child was hurt as there were kids in the reserve at that time.
“Also, imagine if a car had come round our corner and had a head-on with the unmanned car.
“I had originally petitioned for car parks into the reserve. If this had have happened, this silver car would not have been on the road, but safely in the parking bay.”
Ms Davis said she ideally wanted speed bumps to stop more such collisions.
“There seems to be renewed urgency for council to put a speed hump in the middle of this section of Cherryhills Drive,” she said.
“There is an obvious spot, where the footpath in the reserve crosses the road just on the other side of the barbecue area.”
At Tuesday night’s Casey council meeting, councillor Geoff Ablett called on the council to further review Cherryhills Drive in light of the most recent incident.
“Cherryhills Drive has had a problem with hoons and speeding for quite some time,” he said.
“With this latest incident, it’s lucky there weren’t kids playing in the yard.
“It seems to be a real issue with the number of complaints we are getting.
“We need a further review.”
City of Casey manager transport Paul Hamilton said the council would conduct a further review of the traffic conditions in Cherryhills Drive with a view to identifying any measures that could be implemented to reduce the incidence of speeding vehicles.
