Pedestrians taking life in hands trying to cross Shannon Ave

A TRADER on Geelong’s deadliest road has warned pedestrians are forced to play Russian roulette with speeding traffic when crossing the road.

Geoffrey Matthey, owner of the site of the former King Broccoli store on Shannon Ave in Manifold Heights, said leadfooted drivers were regularly running down road signs on pedestrian islands.

Mr Matthey said he had counted more than 70 signs which had been run down by motorists over the past 18 months, and said any of the crashes could have killed a pedestrian.

“There’s never been any obeying of the speed limits,” he said.

“The worst offenders are heavy vehicles.

“Pedestrians have got their refuge in the centre, but they’ve got to make it that far and then they’ve got to get the rest of the way. And with all these signs getting knocked over, if someone was standing there they’d be a fatality as well.”

VicRoads said 23 sign replacements were lodged in the 18 months to June 30, but Mr Matthey claimed the count was far from accurate.

“I think they’ve given you some bogus information,” he said.

It was revealed this month that a 2.5km stretch of Thompson Rd and Shannon Ave claimed half of all the Geelong region’s road fatalities in 2019.

Since February, three people have died in crashes along Thompson Rd while a pedestrian died less than 3km away on Shannon Ave — accounting for half of the eight road fatalities in 2019 to midJuly.

In early May a 68-year-old was killed by a car when trying to cross Shannon Ave at the intersection of Lascelles Ave, a few hundred metres from Mr Matthey’s property.

On Thompson Rd, an 81year-old pedestrian died after being hit by a car at the intersection of Galway Ave in February, an 88-year-old died in hospital after a crash in May, and a woman was killed and three others taken to hospital on July 4 following a four-car smash near Sharon Court.