RESIDENTS living in communities along the Victorian - South Australian border have voiced concerns about the safety around the sudden onset of border checkpoints.
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This concern comes after a truck driver's death at a checkpoint near Serviceton on Thursday, February 11, in a crash involving three trucks lined up to cross into South Australia.
Apsley resident Paula Gust said she has spoken to many people in the area with concerns about crossing the border after the South Australian government announced a snap lockdown.
"There's I think three or four sets of parents here I have talked to that live in Victoria just across the border," Ms Gust said.
"They are not sure that they can take their daughters home for the weekend, and they are going to be shut in Victoria and not able to go to their school."
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Ms Gust founded the Facebook page 'Cross Border Call Outs', which aimed to provide the border community with information around border closures when the first hard border with South Australia was announced in 2020.
Ms Gust said the community feels forgotten by the Victorian government, as many West Wimmera residents have to cross the border daily.
"I have a lot of people calling me panicking saying, 'we are going to SA over the weekend, can we get back to our jobs in Victoria on Sunday?'," Ms Gust said.
"It is ludicrous to have all of Victoria locked down in stage four. There is no consideration or thought for us.
"You can only travel within five kilometres from home if you want to do grocery shopping. For half of us, our nearest shop is twenty-five kilometres away.
"For the majority of us, the closest one is in South Australia. The irony of that, they just are irrelevant.
"That is how all regional Victorian people feel."
Ms Gust said the recent snap lockdowns had created panic in Victoria and South Australia.
"We've said it all along, the panic and chaos that is caused by these lockdowns," Ms Gust said.
"We have all been saying something is bound to happen. Sadly, tragically, it has.
"The truckies aren't rushing to the border; they are just doing their day to day jobs. They do not need to be in those lineups.
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"Clearly they aren't trying to skip the border, they are just trying to do their job."
West Wimmera Shire Council Mayor, Bruce Meyer, said the crash was bound to happen due to the sudden border shut down.
"I have driven that road many times, I know it extremely well. I would never in my wildest dream have expected a seven or eight kilometre line of trucks," Cr Meyer said.
"When you visualise in the night a line of trucks that long, and the tail end of it was virtually at the base of a small rise.
"Thinking back on it you would say that you're not surprised that it has happened."
Cr Meyer said he would wait until the coronial inquiry into the incident was resolved before commenting on who was to blame.
"I just think that everyone has become numb with all of the restrictions that have happened," Cr Meyer said.
"Even with the lockdown today, it is just one more numbing effect that everything becomes a blur."
South Australian Police have launched a major inquiry into the management of the border checkpoints following the incident.
At a press conference, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said South Australian Police had sent traffic management and planning experts to the crash site to determine what safety measures were in place.
"We will be doing an inquiry beyond that to establish the full circumstances that would have potentially contributed to the incident we are talking about," Mr Stevens said.
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