Cross Rd traffic light plan after series of truck crashes
The state government is considering moving traffic lights at the top of Cross Rd to protect motorists from out-of-control trucks at the bottom of the South Eastern Freeway, but the Transport Minister says no decision has been made.
The plan was revealed yesterday after a concrete pumping truck hurtled down the freeway on Wednesday morning, veered left into Cross Rd and onto the wrong side of the road before smashing into a wall.
A concrete pumping truck crashed into a wall at the top of Cross Rd after losing control while coming down the South Eastern Freeway. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDailyThe truck driver was seriously injured but no other motorists were hit because the incident happened before 4am; however, in peak times and regularly throughout the day there are many vehicles waiting at the Cross Rd lights in the truck’s path.
The site is a notorious blackspot, with two motorists killed there in 2014 when a sewage truck lost its brakes on the freeway and slammed into queued traffic, while nine people were injured in 2022 when another truck lost control at the freeway exit.
A truck crash injured nine people at the Cross Rd lights in 2022. Photo: Rebekah ClarksonSouth Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) executive officer Steve Shearer said he had been involved in talks with Transport and Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis, as well as engineers and planners, after the 2022 crash raised serious concerns about safety at the top of Cross Rd.
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“It’s individuals in vehicles at that location that have been most at risk, and so we thought that [moving the lights] was a pretty good idea and so did the government,” Shearer told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning.
Shearer said Transport Department chief executive Jon Whelan had told him he expected the plan to move the traffic lights back would proceed.
“I spoke with Jon Whelan…and he expects the work will be done by late this year or early next year,” Shearer said.
But Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the plans were not locked in. While he expected a design to be completed by the end of the year, it would then be considered before any decision was made.
“We want to make sure we can make sure innocent bystanders are safe by pushing back the intersection, so if there is a runaway truck there is no damage done to cars parked at the lights,” Koutsantonis told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“The Commonwealth Government just invested another $100 million into the South Eastern Freeway. A lot of that is about safety, and we are working through this to make sure we get a good outcome for the South Eastern Freeway.”
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There are currently five lanes at the at the top of Cross Rd, but pushing the lights back to a potentially narrower section of the busy arterial road could present challenges.
Shearer said he understood part of the $100 million which delivered in this week’s federal budget would go towards shifting the lights back, which would mean a longer green light phase for Cross Rd motorists to give them time to cross the intersection.
This change would lead to some delays for traffic at the Glen Osmond and Portrush Rd lights and at the bottom of the freeway
“But compared to the loss of life and the risk, that’s utterly insignificant. It wouldn’t be hours, it wouldn’t even be ten minutes, it might be a minute,” he said.
Shearer also said a third arrester bed for trucks at the freeway bottom would increase safety, but Koutsantonis didn’t agree.
“I am convinced that this is not about the need for a further arrestor bed,” he said.
“What I think we need is better prevention further up the hill, to make sure that drivers know that if they’re not in the right gear they’re actually breaking the law,” he said.
Koutsantonis said there was “no reason for any truck to be out of control if the appropriate gears are used”.
Cars at the top of Cross Rd and at the bottom of the South Eastern Freeway are exposed, with three serious truck accidents at the site in 10 years. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily[ind_jwplayer playerid=”yLSzf7KG” mediaid=”YDrVjSA3″ sponsoroption=”none” sponsorcredit=”SPONSORED%20VIDEO%3A%20THE%20POST” /]
