motorcycle’s posterous

VicRoads Minister Pallas knows the outcome of a barrier trial on a busy country road before the trial even begins.

VicRoads will spend $3.7 million tax dollars experimenting with public safety on the South Gippsland Highway at Koo Wee Rup. Deadly wire rope Barrier will be installed down the centre of the undivided, high-speed road between the Healesville - Koo Wee Rup road and Sybella Avenue. This is a road travelled by tens of thousands of riders coming and going from events on Phillip Island each year. 

If there are no reported hideous casualties on this section of road in, say six months, how long before a centre-of-the-road wire rope barrier is installed near Bendigo or Warrnambool or Bairnsdale or your place?

In a logic-defying quote to a local paper Pallas says WRB will make the road safer. 

"The trial is a first for Victoria with the wire rope barrier installed along the centreline of the undivided road. This project will improve safety for motorists by reducing the occurrence and severity of head-on and run-off road type incidents."

The deadly threat to motorcycle & scooter riders is ignored. According to the wire rope barrier sales video this fence is designed to deform up to a lane width when a car hits it, so how can it reduce the occurrence of head-on crashes? That is if it works as designed which it often does not. The Yatala fatal crash is an example. See below.

In 1999 Victorian Premier to be Steve Bracks wrote in Labor's New Partnership with Motorcyclists.

"Labor recognises the trend towards the use of wire rope barriers as part of road developments is strongly opposed by motorcycle rider organisations. The introduction of wire rope barriers poses an unacceptable danger to motorcyclists. Labor will ban the use of wire rope barriers from future road developments in Victoria."

On February 24, 2003, the Frankston/Hastings Leader newspaper quoted the Peninsula Road Safety Committee Chairman and former policeman Bruce Buchan.

"Lobby groups such as the motorcyclists are against wire rope barriers ... but I think they forgo a certain margin for safety when they get on a motorcycle."

On March 18, 2003, Nicholas Kotsiras raised wire rope barriers in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

"3. Wire rope barriers are dangerous and should not be erected. In light of the fact one former member and one current member of Parliament believe wire rope barriers are a danger, I urge the minister to set up an independent committee to look into the problems associated with this issue. As a former bike rider I also see the dangers in these barriers and I do not believe they offer any security for bike riders or passengers. The Motorcycle Riders' Association of Australia agrees. They have sent me an article which I would like to read into the Hansard regarding the death of a young gentleman. It reads:

'Ferntree Gully motorcyclist, Toby Noble, who died on November 21, 2002, after losing control of his bike and ploughing into a wire rope barrier on the Burwood Highway, was a young p-plater who had a reputation for being careful. Toby 23, was coming home from work early in the morning, riding slowly. The road is a savage left-hand down-sloping curve that appears to have a camber problem. There are two lanes and Toby was in the inner one.

We are not sure why Toby dropped his bike and we know that he and his bike slid at a fairly shallow angle across both lanes ... across a small median before he hit the WRB. By the time Toby hit the post he would have lost most of his speed. This accident clearly illustrates that even at low speeds roadside posts are dangerous.'

The latest offering from transport minister Peter Batchelor (The minister before Pallas) in this saga is to put WRB's down the centre of high-risk dual-lane roads in the country. This will just lead to more motorcycle fatalities.'

I ask the minister to set up a committee to see once and for all the danger of these barriers."

The minister did not set up an independent committee to study the safety and real cost of wire rope barriers. The last thing VicRoads wants is an independent committee looking at their irresponsible lack of research and good science before making Victoria the wire rope barrier capital of the world.

On May 27, 2003, Donna Maree Leary 34, died at a wire rope barrier site on the Brooker Highway in Tasmania. A truck reportedly swung across traffic lanes forcing Donna Leary to either collide with the truck or the wire rope barrier down the middle of the road. She hit the barrier. As with Toby Noble speed was not a factor. There was no question of drugs or alcohol. The weather was fine. There was no machine failure and she was wearing appropriate protective clothing. Coroner Ian Roger Matterson's finding and the affidavit of policeman Iain Roy Shepherd make sad reading. Another life wasted at a wire rope barrier site.

On December 28, 2003, motorcyclist Leslie Sinn 42, died at a wire rope barrier site on the Pacific Highway at Fraser Park in NSW. He hit a centre-of-the-road wire rope barrier like the one VicRoads Minister Pallas intends testing on the South Gippsland Highway. If the South Gippsland Highway "experiment" goes ahead the positive results from the "trial" will be used to excuse centre-of-the-road wire rope barriers across Victoria. This will be good for road building budgets but bad for road safety. 

On February 24, 2005, The Hobart Mercury reported that motorcyclist David King 46 hit a wire rope barrier on the same road where Donna Leary died. David King was considered a good rider with 30 years experience. His son Anthony King called for an urgent review of traffic barriers on Tasmanian roads.

"My dad is now in hospital fighting for his life. There should be some kind of railing system to limit injury to motorcyclists. He would have had a better chance taking on on-coming traffic than the railing which shreds you to pieces."  

Several riders have died at wire rope barrier sites that we know of. There are probably many more but the media are rarely given information on barrier types by police investigation units. In Victoria police work closely with VicRoads. 

On October 2 this year, a 34-year-old motorcyclist died when he hit a wire rope barrier on the Barton Highway in the ACT. We are informed that the rider was on his way to work. There was dead Kangaroo on the road. The rider ran over the carcass or swerved to avoid it, dropped the bike and slid into the wire rope barrier. Acting Superintendent Matthew Corbitt said it appeared speed did not contribute to the crash.

"It just seems to be an unfortunate collision." he said.

It is not just motorcyclists who are killed or horribly injured at wire rope barrier sites. Bicyclists with less protective clothing are at risk from collisions with wire rope barriers too. So are car drivers because wire rope barriers do not perform as the manufacturers and road authorities claim. Wire rope barriers do not stop or deflect large vehicles all the time, especially not if they have been damaged by a previous crash.

On July 24, 2006, at Yatala in Queensland a truck ran over a wire rope barrier, crossed the median strip and ploughed into oncoming cars. A woman died. Eight went to hospital. Six cars were destroyed. This time it was obvious that wire rope barrier was to blame for the carnage and the media reported it.

On the Brisbane TV news the RACQ's John Wikman called for the wire rope barrier to be replaced with a barrier that worked. The manufacturer would not appear on camera but said that wire rope barrier was never designed to stop large vehicles. So what was it doing down the middle of this road?

Now VicRoads minister Pallas plans to install wire rope barrier down the middle of the South Gippsland Highway in a test where the public are the test rats.

The only crash tests on wire rope barriers in Australia were done by MUARC at Laverton C2000. Motorcycles & scooters not included. DVD available. The full report has never been released. Why? VicRoads main excuse for promoting a barrier system they know is flawed and dangerous is a MUARC report which relies mostly on other paper reports and compares Victoria's roads with Sweden's. It would not seem to be good science.

http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc210.pdf

Hopefully, sooner rather than later a lawyer will ask the right questions in a court and a road authority will be sued for a lot of money for knowingly installing a dangerous road barrier system. That would seem to be the only way these massive bureaucracies will change their pro wire rope barrier policies. See attached.

When a massive road building corporation is also the road safety authority poor road safety outcomes are likely. The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Crashes Involving Roadside Objects (2005) was very critical of the lack of good science and research into roadside safety. Page viii of the Executive Summary. "The difficulty obtaining adequate data, in particular travel exposure information to better assess crash risk and target safety treatments, is a continuing issue in Victoria ... Governments agree to improve crash information, yet crash and crash risk information continues to be an impediment to the improvement of roadside safety ..."

Chapter 8 covers wire rope barriers but answers few safety or cost questions.

Courtesy of Damien Codognotto OAM, Independent Riders' Group, Melbourne 0419 846 855.