By Brendan Rees
A plea from the Lynbrook community to improve safety at a busy intersection in Lynbrook has been answered with the City of Casey committed to introducing crossing supervisors.
Casey Council conducted a pedestrian count during peak school times at the South Gippsland Highway and Lynbrook Boulevard intersection which met the requirement for school crossing supervisors to be placed on the south-west side of the intersection near the Lynbrook Village Shopping Centre.
Casey councillors voted to submit the results and a funding submission to VicRoads for two supervisors to start in July at their Tuesday, 13 March meeting.
It comes as the council accepted a petition of 164 signatures from concerned residents seeking a supervised school crossing at the intersection which was tabled at a council meeting on 5 December last year.
The 893-bus route is also planned for rerouting so the southbound services continue along Lynbrook Boulevard and stop at Lynbrook Village Shopping Centre.
“This would remove the need for passengers to cross the South Gippsland Highway to access Lynbrook Village,” a council report states.
Casey councillor Damien Rosario said he was pleased action was being taken to improving safety at the intersection.
“A lot of children do cross that intersection to get to the buses and I’m very pleased to see in the report that the bus routes actually changing and hopefully be signed off soon,” he said
“That’s a big win for council I think our advocacy. It takes a split second for someone to get run over if they’re not looking or expecting a vehicle to cross through a red light.”
But Cr Rosario added: “I acknowledge VicRoads have done some works there with static signs; we need to go further than that.”
VicRoads manager movement and safety (metro south east) Sasha Yarwood said safety was being at the intersection was being taken seriously with the removal of vegetation, upgrading the traffic light lanterns to LEDs and increasing warning signage.
“We will continue to monitor this intersection and work with the Lynbrook community to ensure this location is as safe for road users as possible,” he said.
Last year VicRoads installed prepare to stop signs and static traffic light warning signs.
A review of the Department of Justice and Regulation infringement notice record confirmed a large reduction in vehicles running red lights since the LED upgrade, VicRoads says.
Casey Councillor Wayne Smith said he believed the intersection had one of the highest rates of traffic collisions.
“Lynbrook gets more mention on 3AW than any other suburb I think for traffic congestion and car accidents.”
