Reduce speed, save lives, RTA told | Clarence Valley News | Local News in Clarence Valley

Emergency services at the scene. The driver escaped with minor injuries.

AFTER having a car crash outside their Lawrence Road home on the same date for the past three years, Penny and Stephen Lane would like to strike February 4 from the calendar.

But better still would be to get the Roads and Traffic Authority to introduce speed restrictions, widen the road and fix the camber problems they claim have been responsible for a spate of accidents at the site.

The Lanes’ home is about seven kilometres north of Grafton where the Lawrence Road first meets Alumy Creek.

In the past three years they have had six crashes at the site and 62-year-old Stephen has had to pull a number of victims from the creek to save them from drowning.

About 6pm on Thursday last week there was another crash.

This time a woman on red P-plates was driving north towards Lawrence when she apparently lost control of her vehicle.

According to Penny Lane, the scenario was all too familiar.

“We were just standing out on the verandah and saw her coming around the corner,” she said.

“I could see what was going to happen ... I just couldn’t speak.”

She said that in some ways the young woman was fortunate. A Holden Commodore was coming from the opposite direction, but the driver had the presence of mind and driving skills to avoid a head-on collision.

As it was, the woman took out a number of fence posts, narrowly missed a large tree and her vehicle came to rest only a couple of metres from the creek.

Mrs Lane said they held their breath every time it rained.

“The screeching of brakes at night is unbelievable,” she said.

“Every time I hear a car coming fast around that corner I block my ears.”

The Lanes have lived in the rural cottage for the past three years. They bought the home after the previous owners decided they couldn’t live there after a motorcyclist was killed at the site.

“We didn’t realise when we moved here the ferociousness of the traffic,” she said.

She said road improvements and a speed reduction could save a life.

“We nearly lost one here the other night,” she said.

“Does it take a death for someone to do something?”

The woman involved in the Thursday night crash was taken to Grafton Base Hospital with minor injuries and released.