Yangan Rd drops away
"WHY wait for a fatality?" is the cry from Warwick and District Road Safety committee member David Kemp.
A culvert 3.3m deep lurks only 0.7m from the edge of Yangan Rd at Swan Creek.
Mr Kemp has lived in the area for more than 50 years and said he had noticed more cars using the road.
"As a part of the road safety committee I have always been aware of dangers on our roads," Mr Kemp said.
"Recently I have begun to notice the increasing amounts of traffic."
Mr Kemp said the side of the road next to the culvert was extremely soft and if someone was distracted for a split second and ended up off the road even slightly there would be no chance of survival.
He also said there are no fog lines alongside the road and last week his son had a close encounter when a truck was using the middle of the road in the fog.
"You see a lot of trucks driving towards the centre of the road while passing the culvert because of how close to the edge of the road it is," he said.
"At the very least a guard rail needs to be put around the culvert on both sides before someone is killed.
"Last week Main Roads put up new directional signs and guide posts. One of the guide posts put up last week has already been knocked out," he said.
School bus owner Steve Rettke from Warwick Charter Coaches said he had two buses travelling past the culvert four times a day.
"It's extremely concerning when a busload of students travels past such a dangerous stretch of road each day," he said.
"There is no room for error.
"All it would take is for one of the buses to blow a steer tyre.
"The new signage put up last week will do nothing. There are still no fog lines to follow and the directional signs are not going to stop a car from heading into the deep culvert."
Mr Rettke said he knew of a few close calls and it was only a matter of time before someone was killed there.
A spokesman for The Department of Transport and Main Roads said the culvert was recently inspected.
"We recently inspected the culvert on Warwick-Yangan Rd and found the end of the culvert is at least 2m from the edge of the road," he said.
"There are reflective guideposts already along this road and our records show it has very low crash history with no accidents reported at this location.
"We will continue to monitor safety and traffic movements on this section of road and have no current plans to upgrade this culvert."
