State of Kurrajong Road wearing thin with drivers

By NADINE MORTON

Sept. 17, 2012, 4 a.m.

LIVING DANGEROUSLY: Manildra resident Tori Brown says the Kurrajong Road between Manildra and Cudal needs an urgent upgrade due to road conditions. Photo: STEVE GOSCH 0914sgroad2

MANILDRA resident Tori Brown has called on Cabonne Council to urgently upgrade the Kurrajong Road saying it is unsafe for road users.

She regularly uses the road and said high levels of heavy vehicles combined with deteriorating road conditions are an accident waiting to happen.

“If you meet a larger vehicle coming the other way there is no side of the road to move over,” she said.

“I slow down and wait for the truck [to pass] or hope to hell you won’t clip them.”

She claims potholes and bad patch-up jobs by Cabonne Council make it impossible to remain in your own lane on many parts of the road.

“I feel every single bump [and] when a semi-trailer comes past you have to slow down,” she said.

“There are constant potholes throughout, there’s no safe area to drive on your own side of the road.

“If it was two normal cars that would be okay but it’s just that there’s so many heavy vehicles travelling [on the road].”

Miss Brown said she knows first- hand about tragedy on the road following the death of her then 13-year-old sister Montana on a nearby road.

Montana was killed in a car accident on the Packham Drive between Manildra and Molong on September 9, 2010, and Miss Brown says that road was in a similar condition to the Kurrajong Road.

“Even if it [this story] brings it to the attention of the council and can stop another family going through this that would be good,” she said.

“I’ll do anything for another family to not feel that pain.

Cabonne Council spokesperson Dale Jones did acknowledge a section of the Kurrajong Road needs work.

“A section of that road has been earmarked for renewal and that work will probably be undertaken in the next few months,” he said.