The Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has given her support to reduce the speed limit to 90 kilometres per hour from 110kmh along Vasse Yallingup Siding Road.
The call comes after Vasse MLA Libby Mettam and City of Busselton councillor Rob Bennett made multiple requests for a reduction of the speed limit following a number of serious accidents on what they described as a dangerous stretch of road.
Ms Mettam said she welcomed the minister’s support and looked forward to the council’s concurrence of the proposed change which would then go through Main Roads for normal approval process.
“It is a no brainer given the amount of school children who use this stretch of road, it is on a bend and trees are in close proximity,” she said.
“The crashes we have seen here in the past all indicate people need to be travelling at a lower speed limit.”
Vasse Yallingup Siding resident Ian Carter has attended a number of accidents along the road to assist people who were seriously injured in the crashes. In two of those accidents people had to be airlifted to Perth.
Mr Carter said they were pleased the speed limit could be reduced but would have liked it to be 80kmh, particularly because a school bus picked up and dropped off students along the road.
“Ninety kilometres per hour is still a step in the right direction,” he said.
His son David Carter meets his children as they get dropped off by the school bus and had witnessed vehicles whizzing by at high speeds
David said unfortunately there were a lot of no-brain drivers on the road which was also a commuter route.
“At school bus times in the mornings and afternoons there are trade trailers, trucks and all sorts of people flogging it,” he said.
“It is only a matter of time before there is another serious crash and I hope none of us bystanders are involved in it.”
Councillor Bennett said Vasse Yallingup Siding Road was one of the most dangerous roads in the region and he was glad to see commonsense had ruled.
“It is narrow, it is windy, it is busy at times, the sun can be blinding and it seems incongruous that there is no cap on a speed limit here, yet most of the roads around here have a cap.”