A morning car crash this week at the intersection of Clyde-Five Ways and Waterman Drive has highlighted concerns over the traffic light setups.
A car crash happened at about 8:30 am on this Wednesday 23 July, at the intersection of Clyde Five‑Ways Road and Waterman Drive in Clyde.
According to a commuter in the area, the crash caused quite a delay as the intersection had been completely closed off during the morning’s peak hours, with emergency services attending to multiple collision vehicles at the scene.
A woman in her 30s with a medical condition was transported in a stable condition, and a man in his 60s was also transported with an upper body injury, but was also in a stable condition.
The accident was not fatal or significant.
Star News visited the intersection and talked with several residents living nearby. They said they had heard about “quite a few” car crashes in this particular intersection over the years.
Resident Jag Singh said he had been living in the area for a year and a half, and he had heard about three to four accidents during the morning peak hours. One of the crashes even involved a friend of his.
He believed that the frequency of the crashes could be due to the intersection’s signalling.
He explained that when turning right from Clyde-Five Ways onto Waterman Drive, drivers don’t get a dedicated right-turn arrow. Instead, they face a single generic green light, which means they must judge when it’s safe to turn across oncoming traffic.
This becomes especially risky because the opposing traffic is coming downhill at speed, making it harder to predict how quickly cars will reach the intersection.
Drivers attempting to turn right often hesitate or misjudge gaps, increasing the risk of collisions, he said.
Mr Singh believed that the lack of a controlled turn signal, combined with fast-moving downhill traffic, could lead to a crash.
Mr Singh said Waterman Drive has a school alongside, which made the traffic really heavy in the morning peak hours.
He added that people nowadays can drive carelessly.
As the interview went on, a car jumped the red lights at the intersection, and Mr Singh pointed out that this was one of the reasons car crashes happened.
Star News has gone through the State’s Road Crash Database, which is 7 months in lag, and didn’t locate any crash at the intersection on record, but it is noted that this data has been consolidated from Victoria Police reports and Hospital injury information.
