Crash renews calls for highway speed limit cut

Waterloo Village Caravan Park owner Greg Homer has renewed his plea for a stretch of South Western Highway to be reduced to 80km/h after another serious crash last week.

A blue Hyundai Getz travelling towards Bunbury hit a tree and rolled outside the caravan park on Thursday morning, something Mr Homer said could have been prevented.

“Because the road is orientated east west, you often have the potential for the sun to be in somebody’s eyes,” he said.

“From the Waterloo road house the speed limit is 90km/h, then just here around the bend it reduces back to 80, but on this particular section of road it’s still 100km/h.

“I think most of the residents here feel the same way – if you drop it to 80km/h, it makes very little difference to the journey time heading into or out of Bunbury.”

Both the driver and passenger of the car, a mother and baby, escaped the crashed without serious injury.

The crash did not just hit home for Mr Homer, but also for local father Sydney Graham, whose children had been waiting for their school bus in the same shelter the car came to rest against less than hour before the crash.

“It’s a big worry for us,” he said.

Mr Homer met Road Safety Minister Michelle Roberts and Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray earlier in the year to discuss the 3km stretch of road and described the involvement of a baby in the crash as a tragedy.

“You don’t want to see things like this,” he said.

“It’s a complete and utter tragedy, you don’t want somebody starting off life devastated or getting hurt in an accident.

“It could have lasting repercussions for the rest of their life.”

Mr Homer said he was running for the Dardanup Shire Council this year in the hope of being “more instrumental in trying to bring about these changes for our community”.