Maurice, Hindmarsh Road speed limit will drop to 50km/h
The Murray Bridge council has voted to lower the speed limit on the major freight route through the city’s west after pleas about safety from residents.
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The speed limit on a major route through Murray Bridge will be lowered by 10 kilometres per hour after a decision by the city’s council this week.
On Monday night, councillors voted 4-3 in favour of reducing the limit on Maurice and Hindmarsh Roads from 60 to 50km/h in the interests of public safety.
Resident Jeff Morgan had begged the council to make the change, saying he had seen too many near misses that could have been fatal.
A car had been rear-ended and spun up onto the footpath, hitting two people.
An elderly gentleman in a gopher had underestimated the speed of an oncoming road train and come within a metre of being hit.
A young mum’s pusher had almost tipped over, with two children in it and a truck barrelling down on them.
“We have these trucks and cars and four-wheel drives, and so many of them, barrelling down this road and it’s frightening,” he said.
“There’s so many accidents.
“It’s only a matter of time before we have another fatality.”
A total of 40 crashes were recorded along Maurice and Hindmarsh Roads in the five years from 2020-24, according to the state Department for Infrastructure and Transport.
Nineteen people were injured, though none seriously.
Numerous residents have spent the past five years lobbying for a lower speed limit on the road, and for anything larger than a semi-trailer to be diverted away from built-up areas.
A total of 124 locals signed a petition to that effect in 2022.
Why should the limit stay at 60 when 50 was deemed safer for little Mallee Highway townships like Sherlock, Peake and Jabuk, Mr Morgan asked?
Delay will only cost drivers 46 seconds, councillor says
Cr Tom Haig said the case for a speed reduction was “compelling”.
“Reducing travel speeds is the single most effective way to prevent road fatalities and serious injuries,” he said.
“By supporting such a reduction, not only will road and pedestrian safety be improved, but a reduction in noise and vibration levels would accompany such a move, considerably improving the lives of residents living along those roads.”
By his estimation, the delay would only cost drivers an extra 46 seconds between Bunnings and Swanport Road.
Mayor Wayne Thorley attempted to delay a vote on the matter, urging councillors to wait and seek more information from staff, but staff advised that they were okay with the proposal.
The council will relay its decision to DIT, which approves speed limits on South Australian roads, and to SA Police, who will be responsible for enforcing it.
The change will not come into effect until signage can be installed in the coming months.
The speed limit on Cypress Terrace, the final section of the freight route through Murray Bridge, will remain at 60km/h.
Councillors hope to break bypass deadlock
The same group of Murray Bridge councillors had previously voted against reducing the speed limit in 2023.
But that was before the announcement of plans for a bypass which would take truck traffic out of Murray Bridge’s residential neighbourhoods – and before a funding impasse which seems to have forced the project onto the back burner.
Reducing the speed limit now might actually help push the state and federal governments back to the negotiating table, Cr Haig suggested.
If the slower speed limit proved inconvenient to the trucking industry, the truckies would surely put more pressure on both governments to get the bypass built.
Right now, the bypass seemed “as distant … as it was then”, Cr Haig said.
It was frustrating to think that $600 million was just sitting on the table, waiting to be spent on the project, Cr Airlie Keen said.
