DEATH ROAD NEEDS FIX

CORONIAL investigations will reveal in time what caused the latest fatal crash on a high-risk stretch of road near Tumbulgum.

But motorists will already suspect contributing factors include road width, speed and the state of the pavement on Tweed Valley Way in the wake of recent flooding.

Be that as it may, that road has long been a known death trap earmarked for attention by the local authority, which applied almost a year ago for funding under a federal Black Spot program.

It does Canberra little credit that the Tweed council was still waiting for an answer when the head-on crash occurred last week, claiming the life of a driver whose vehicle is believed to have veered across the road into the path of a truck.

The accident happened two years after another fatal crash on the same stretch.

As the Bulletin reports today, official NSW Transport figures also show that between 2011-2015, crashes along the road resulted in more than 30 serious injuries and more than 30 moderate injuries.

Given this litany of disasters, it beggars belief that the council had to go cap in hand seeking funding to try to stop the carnage, and is still waiting.

As locals say, reducing the speed limit would be a good start. And if governments are not moved to initiate a total rebuild, then the least they can do is sling Tweed the money to install the cable barriers that would separate the lanes – and do it now, for the sake of innocent lives.