Dangerous crossing riles town residents
DISGRUNTLED residents of a small but busy Cassowary Coast town are feeling neglected as months-old bridge and footpath damage is in disrepair, placing pedestrians at risk.
Pedestrians are currently forced to walk around a traffic warning sign blocking the footpath for the narrow Cheeki Creek bridge which runs over Hynes Street at South Johnstone and is commonly used by large mill trucks.
And by walking around, they risk a 10m fall into a creek, or must step on to a narrow road, where even vehicles struggle to remain in their lanes.
South Johnstone’s Criterion Hotel owner Shirley Vincent said since November, when a truck took out the fencing on the bridge, no repairs had been done.
“It’s unacceptable. It’s been six months and no one has looked at it,” she said. “They just think ‘it’s South Johnstone, oh well’.
“Meanwhile they have special bridges just for footpaths at Mission Beach, a new footpath to get from Innisfail to Flying Fish Point, and we’re using one where we’re basically walking on the road and they can’t fix it.
“The other night there was a man walking home and he had to walk around that sign blocking the path. He went on the grass and went over. He was stuck down at the bottom of creek for hours.”
South Johnstone resident of 10 years Rupert Perry lives just metres south of the bridge and says many times a year vehicles would strike the footpath fencing.
“The footpath is normally covered in glass from broken mirrors,” he said.
“It’s a very tight bridge. You watch cars goes through and they’ll struggle to stay in their lanes. And yet through the (cane) season there’ll be trucks on it at the same time.”
Mr Perry said the section of road needed attention as vehicles whizzed past pedestrians with less than 1m of walking space. “It’s clearly busy. We have Paronella Park just down the road so that’s a lot of tourists and during the season you can’t cross the road. So it’s getting the use, why can’t they expand it?”
The Department of Main Roads and Transport has been asked for comment.