MEMBER for Lowan Emma Kealy has called on the state government to rethink its roads budget distribution after two major incidents on the same road within a year.
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Ms Kealy has called on the government to immediately fix Casterton-Apsley Road after an incident last week involving a ute and a truck.
Hamilton police reported the ute moved onto the side of the road to let the B-double truck pass, however the ute driver lost control of the vehicle and it hit a tree.
The driver – a Casterton man – was flown to The Alfred in Melbourne in a serious but stable condition.
Ms Kealy said the incident came after a fatality on the road in March last year, when a car left the road and hit a tree, killing the driver.
She said road was one of many that needed urgent work.
“This road, like many roads in the Lowan electorate, is riddled with potholes and crumbling shoulders, with locals regularly reporting damage to vehicles and agricultural machinery,” she said.
“The RACV has named western Victoria as having the worst roads in Victoria.
“It is simply not good enough that our roads are so poorly maintained that locals are putting their lives at risk when going about their daily lives doing a job they love, taking the kids to school or going to footy or netball training.”
Ms Kealy has called on the state government to reverse cuts to the country roads budget by reinstating the Country Roads and Bridges Program, which stopped in 2015 after four years.
She said the electorate had received nowhere near its fair share of funding from the state government in the past three years.
“Premier Daniel Andrews talks about the unfair amount of money Victoria gets from the federal government, but our electorate has 25 per cent of the state’s population and we got less than three per cent of the infrastructure budget two budgets ago,” she said.
“Roads is a huge issue, and still the thing I get the most contact about.
“Daniel Andrews must immediately fix our country roads and save country lives.”