DEAR News Of The Area,

I READ with interest Wayne Graham’s recent letter “Driver Responsibility” in NOTA.

I agree with him in that driver behaviour plays a very important role in maintaining road safety.

However, I believe that there are other factors at play that potentially undermine the best efforts of drivers to safely negotiate the dangers of the Valla Beach Road and Giinagay Road intersection.

To illustrate this let’s look at two intersections.

The first of these is the Valla Beach Road intersection, and the second is the Link Road and Giinagay Road intersection at Nambucca Heads.

Let’s look first at the similarities between the two.

They are in the same Council area, are very similar in layout, signage and line marking, and have the same drivers using them on a regular basis.

Speed limits are set by Transport for NSW (TfNSW).

Now for the differences.

The Link Road intersection has reasonable visibility in all directions, with longer feed-in and turning lanes than those at the Valla Beach Road intersection.

The Link Road intersection has a higher traffic volume, with a speed limit of 60 km/hr.

The Valla Beach Road intersection has poor visibility of and for southbound traffic.

The speed limit is 90 km/hr.

Regarding number of accidents and their severity, the Valla Beach Road intersection is the clear leader.

Really, is improving the safety for drivers at the Valla Beach Road intersection all that hard?

Visibility and speed are the obvious issues.

TfNSW and Nambucca Valley Council have a responsibility to do all in their power to make the Valla Beach Road intersection just as safe as the Link Road intersection.

I understand why TfNSW relies on their NSW Speed Zoning Standard, but in this instance it really doesn’t seem fit for purpose.

All I can say is that if you build a mousetrap that catches no mice, you don’t attempt to re-engineer the mice, you redesign the mousetrap.

The crest in the road between East West Road and Valla Beach Road causes a visibility problem of and for southbound traffic.

This is not an easy or inexpensive fix.

However, as a first step in improving our mousetrap I would like to see the imposition of a 60 km/hr speed limit for northbound traffic starting 200 metres before Valla Beach Road, reverting to 90 km/hr 200 metres after East West Road.

For southbound traffic implement a 60 km/hr speed limit 200 metres before East West Road, reverting to 100 km/hr 200 metres after Valla Beach Road.

The cost of this would be small, and it would be very easy to implement.

Keep the cameras at the intersection and give it a six-month trial.

Hopefully we’ll catch more mice.

Regards,
Paul COE,
Valla.