By Pam Kiriakidis
RESIDENTS have raised their concerns over a lack of street safety on Black Duck Crossing – a Kilmore road between Tootle Street and Natures Run that has a high volume of speeding vehicles.
Black Duck Crossing is surrounded by growing estates and was extended a few years ago with a bridge to allow access over the creek onto Natures Run.
Resident Gary Saunders, who has lived on Black Duck Crossing for five years, said the road had become a speedway and was endangering the younger population and wildlife – an incident earlier this month required an injured kangaroo joey to be rescued.
“It’s mainly to do with the late afternoon and the weekends – we get a lot of speeding motorists on the weekends and because there’s the estates here, there’s a lot more young children,” he said.
“Over the creek, there’s a lot of families that moved in with kids … I see little kids riding on their bikes all the time.”
Mr Saunders said he contacted Mitchell Shire Council to help with the issue, hoping for a solution such as a speed hump or signage to slow down drivers.
Although Black Duck Crossing already has one existing speed hump, located north of Overland Drive, Mr Saunders said there needed to be a practical solution similar to the effective speed humps around the corner from Black Duck Crossing.
“It’s got to be practical … there’s got to be a deterrent to slow it down a bit,” he said.
“Something needs to be done on the other side of the bridge and maybe this side of the bridge, so there’s a bit of buffer in the middle.”
Mitchell Shire Council chief executive Brett Luxford said council was taking up the concern and investigating the issue by ordering a traffic count.
“A traffic count has been ordered to see if further traffic calming measures are needed in addition to the existing speed hump north of Overland Drive,” he said.
“When the traffic count data is received, council will make further assessments and decide if other measures need to be taken.”
