THE City of Mandurah will support the installation of curve advanced warnings for a section of Estuary Drive, Dawesville following a double fatality in 2016.
The council is supporting using signs, guide posts and curve alignment markers to identify a curve in the road where a car hit a roadside tree, killing both occupants.
As the road is under the care, control and management of the council, Main Roads WA has forwarded a copy of its findings to the council for its consideration and implementation of remedial measures.
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READ NOWAccording to the Main Roads WA report, the vehicle involved in the accident failed to negotiate a slight right hand curve in a 50kph section of Estuary Road, continued in a straight line, crossed to the wrong side of the road and struck the tree less than one metre from the edge of the road.
Council officers considered a number of options – protecting the tree with a properly designed crash barrier system, absorbing any impact, removing the tree or modifying the road alignment.
Although environmentally undesirable, council officers said removing the healthy tree, worth $75,000 and an asset to the community, would not reduce the risk of inappropriate driver behaviour or vehicles leaving the road at the location.
Roads like Estuary Road in semi-rural environments would inevitably have a high abundance of trees adjacent to the road alignment.
Removing the tree was the least preferred option and the cost of modifying the road alignment substantial.
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