Hume council has renewed its calls for the state government to speed up construction of the Bulla bypass.
The move follows the release of VicRoads figures that show there were five deaths and 127 casualty crashes on Sunbury-Bulla Road between 2003 and 2012.
The data, presented at last Monday’s council meeting, shows that between 2008-12 there were 51 crashes on Sunbury-Bulla Road between Melbourne-Lancefield Road and Melbourne Airport. One of them resulted in a death.
From 2003 to 2007, there were 76 casualty crashes, including four fatalities.
Two women died in a crash on the road this year.
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A report by council officers highlighted that there had been 16 crashes on Sunbury-Bulla Road between Tullamarine Freeway and Oaklands Road from 2008-12.
Of those, five were caused by people doing illegal U-turns in 100km/h zones.
Cr Jack Ogilvie said the worrying thing about the report was the high number of accidents caused by people’s “stupidity”.
“There have been quite a number of accidents over the past five years … it’s quite alarming.”
He said the council needed to press the state government and VicRoads to build a Bulla bypass as part of the Outer Metropolitan Ring Road project.
Cr Jack Medcraft read out a letter from a concerned Sunbury resident, who didn’t want to be named, saying: “It’s only a matter of time before we have a major incident in this area.”
Last month, Planning Minister Matthew Guy said he could not give a clearer time frame on the construction of the ring road project.
