Residents drive campaign for safer road

LAKE Canobolas Road residents vow they’re just getting started on a campaign to upgrade the road and to reduce the speed limit to 60 kilometres per hour.

In response to questions from the Central Western Daily the Roads and Maritime Services said a request for a speed limit review of the road had not been received. The RMS suggested residents could sign up to the Safer Roads NSW website to have their say on speed limits.

Resident Borry Gartrell said he would make a submission but didn’t believe it would make a difference. 

Instead he would like residents to put more pressure on Orange City Council and Cabonne Council to make a submission on behalf of the traffic committee to review the road.

Lake Canobolas Road is a local road and is the responsibility of Cabonne Council.

“Many residents have had near-death experiences on this road,” he said.

“It’s a tourist road and there’s been a big change in the level of traffic over the last few years.”

Mr Gartrell is convinced there will be an accident involving a cyclist or a jogger on the road.

Between 2007 and 2011 there have been 10 crashes on the road. 

Mr Gartrell said trucks drive in the middle of the narrow road to avoid overhanging branches. He said he’d spent two weeks clearing vegetation from the road to make it safer for visitors to his winery.

“Obviously council aren’t going to spend money on it,” he said.

Residents have taken up the campaign in response to a crash on the intersection of Lake Canobolas Road and Cargo Road recently. The man involved may never fully recover. 

Residents say they’ve had enough of the condition of the region’s roads and a concerted effort of both councils is the only way a difference will be made.

“The road usage has changed dramatically and hundreds even thousands of people walk along it over the weekends,” Mr Gartrell said.

Mr Gartrell said the residents didn’t want to wait for another life-threatening crash to prompt action.