No more talk on Appin Road, minister: just fix it now

Just one life lost on any road is one too many.

But when a busy route such as Appin Road claims dozens of lives you know the time has come to stop talking about it and just fix it.

Most residents of Campbelltown and Camden have driven along Appin Road, usually to get to Wollongong.

Their journey has been a safe one each time, as it is for most people who choose to drive along Appin Road.

But that does not make Appin Road safer.

Far from it.

However you look at it, there is just no margin for error along many parts of Appin Road for motorists who may be fatigued.

It is too narrow, the shoulders either side inadequate and there is no median strip on the run from the town of Appin to Wollongong.

There is some work going on to fix bits and pieces of Appin Road, but that is basically all that’s been done in the past 20 years – the band aid approach to solutions.

And the tragic deaths continue to occur, the latest a 25 year female teacher from a local school.

Local MP Greg Warren recently took the roads minister Duncan Gay on an inspection tour of Appin Road.

Let’s hope that the minister now acts quickly to do the work that is needed to make Appin Road a lot safer than it is at present.

It will cost a lot of money, but it will also save a lot of lives – so nothing else needs to be said.

Appin Road needs to be widened for starters.

A median strip should be built along its entire length and more overtaking sections introduced as part of the solution.

And rest areas for fatigued drivers.

What needs to be done to make Appin Road a lot safer is a no brainer.

But what’s important now is that quick action is taken because the time for talk is finished over Appin Road.

Minister, all this needs to be done right now.

Not in three months or three years.

Now.