Steel calls for urgent fix to give way sign

BRENDAN CRABB

ONE of Kiama’s councillors wants a “major problem” on the roads of Bombo fixed urgently.

Councillor Warren Steel has asked for the council’s traffic committee to conduct a report on the potentially hazardous intersection near Bombo Beach.

The T-intersection of Hutchinson St and Riverside Dr is next to the Cleary Bros Bombo quarry.

At present there is a give way sign on Hutchinson Dr outside Cleary Bros, meaning cars coming out of the intersection must give way to oncoming trucks and trains.

However, Cr Steel said drivers at the give way sign were often unable to properly observe whether traffic was coming down the hill.

“The RTA put the give way sign in the wrong place; it should be moved 20 metres up the road towards the corner so that the trucks have to give way to the cars,” he said.

Cr Steel said trucks travelling along the road should be going over the as-yet-unbuilt bridge off the Princes Highway bypass – a cause that he has championed for several years.

“The trucks should go across the bridge, but until the bridge is built the trucks should have to give way to other traffic,” he said.

“The truckies want to go across the bridge as well, because if you have a slow car coming out of there it could mean an accident.

“If the bridge was there, there’d be no trucks on our roads.

“Just the other day I saw two cars nearly get hit by oncoming trucks.”

Cr Steel said he hoped the report would result in the sign being relocated to improve the situation and hoped the bridge would be constructed in the near future.

He said the status quo was an unacceptable state of events that could have serious consequences down the line.

“It’s a major problem; we haven’t had a incident yet, but if we do it’ll be a death,” he said.

Both Cleary Bros and Albion Park Quarry were unwilling to comment on the matter.