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Wire rope barriers

MRAA CALLS FOR A BAN ON WIRE ROPE BARRIERS

TO VICTORIAN MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

Victorian families struggle to make ends meet in 2023. The state budget increases costs for road users while reducing money for repairs to neglected country roads. This budget will not reduce road trauma. It will increase freight costs registration fees and fines making life even harder for Victorians trying to survive financially. The Government has spent literally billions on wire rope barriers. The Victorian Auditor General was critical of VicRoads management of rural roads. Funds that should have been spent on road repairs was spent on wire rope barriers. Wire rope barrier has a short working life, 20 years compared to 80+ years for concrete barriers. Wire rope barrier is easily damaged so repairs and maintenance are a high ongoing cost.

The justification for using wire rope barrier because it reduces casualty crashes is bogus. Cars get vaulted into the air and/or rolled pretty much daily but VicPol crash investigators do not record barrier types in crash reports. Even Prime Minister Morrison’s security officers rolled an SUV after hitting wire rope barrier in Tasmania in 2022. The hazard and the cost to Victorian road users from wire rope barrier is too high to continue. Some countries have banned wire rope barrier, some have restricted their use and some are not replacing them. West Australia is the first state to replace wire rope barrier.

The MRAA calls for a halt to the installation of wire rope barriers in Victoria. Please ask Roads and Road Safety Minister Horne to stop installing wire rope barrier in Victoria.

Geelong TV. March 31, 2023. These examples of crashes where crash data and advice to the Victorian Coroner is suspect, are just the tip of the iceberg. The MRAA can supply more information.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=search&v=677394831064273&external_log_id=1bd530de-bad2-447d-8f5a-a5da2e692663&q=Bell%20Post%20Hill%20Geelong%20Ring%20Road

The white car was vaulted into the air by the wire rope barrier end cables in similar fashion to the end cables that flung a car into a tree at Pyalong.

Four young men died in the Pyalong crash. VicRoads was warned by the manufacturers about these dangerous end cables around 2011. VicPol do not routinely record barrier types in serious injury or fatal crash reports. VicRoads admitted in the Coroners Court that had the Pyalong wire rope barrier been placed differently or not Benn there at all, the outcome of that crash would have been different.

The photo is on the Hume Highway inbound after Cooper Street in Campbellfield north of Melbourne. About 7.45 am on Monday, May 22, 2023.

How many more of these crashes have to happen before the Victorian researchers and the self-titled “road safety partners” admit wire rope barrier does not work as advertised?

Go see your MP. Talk to the staff at the electoral office. Your taxes pay for their wages and rent.

Damien Codognotto OAM

The Motorcycle Riders Association Australia

The Bass and Midlands Highways in Tasmania are dangerous roads. The Bass Highway is to be upgraded. The Motorcycle Riders Association Australia has called on the State Government to stop using wire rope barriers (WRB) because they are dangerous to all road users and because they cost tax payers a lot more than any other road barrier type.

The danger WRB poses to car drivers was highlighted by a crash in 2022 involving the Prime Ministers security details. Four police, two federal and two Tasmanian, on the Bass Highway. Presumably the SUV they were in was roadworthy and travelling legally with a trained driver. Their SUV was apparently nudged by a ute, hit w-beam then WRB.

The WRB did not stop the police SUV. The car rolled. Luckily the police were not injured according to media reports.

Damien Codognotto OAM

Spokesperson. The Motorcycle Riders Association Australia.

www.facebook.com/damien.codognotto.9

The Hobart Mercury. February 15, 2023.
The Hobart Mercury. February 18, 2023.

The Melbourne Herald Sun. Saturday, June 18, 2022.

Respect and sympathy to the victim’s loved ones. RIP.

This looks like another case of the road barrier being too close to the traffic lane so denying the motorist a safe place to stop. Maybe not. BUT police are feeding the media possible reasons to blame before any real science could have been done. It looks to me, from the photo, that the wire rope barrier has fenced a possible run-off area forcing the drivers to stop in a dangerous area.

Three things.

Crash investigators should not feed the media their opinions at this stage of an investigation.

Run-off areas should be established where possible on Victorian roads.

The road authority should face some sort of manslaughter charge if they fenced a run-off area causing this fatality.

Compensation to the victim’s loved ones should be public with NO confidentiality clause.

Damien

MRAA
19 June 2022

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=834179690877116&set=gm.2823522121287185