By Laura Wakely
THE DEATH of 15-year-old Teresa Ho has renewed calls for the Government to upgrade level crossings in St Albans.
The Cairnlea schoolgirl was hit by a train when she opened a gate and tried to run across the tracks at a crossing near Ginifer station.
St Albans Traders Association secretary Asip Demiri said the community had been campaigning for safety upgrades at the Furlong Rd level crossing and Main Rd level crossing at the nearby St Albans railway station for more than 20 years.
Both level crossings have a history of injuries and fatalities.
There have been at least six fatalities, including Teresa Ho’s, at the Furlong Rd crossing since 1995 and one fatality at the Main Rd crossing in 2007, along with a number of injuries at each crossing according to the Transport Safety Commission.
“Government’s have basically been ignoring it,” Mr Demiri said.
“We’ve been lobbying, lobbying, lobbying but all we get is excuses, excuses, excuses.”
VicRoads Project Director John Moylan said the Main Rd crossing was one of the 10 priority road-rail level crossings that the Government had committed to removing in the next three years.
But Mr Moylan said the Furlong Rd crossing is not being considered, despite the Department of Transport (DOT) earmarking the crossing as the fifth-most dangerous level crossing in Victoria.
Derrimut MP Telmo Languiller said he would be advocating for the level crossing issues to be addressed and said Labor had initiated the Main Rd crossing grade separation.
Kororoit MP Marlene Kairouz said the Government’s decision to fund a crossing in Brighton which is ranked 223 on the DOT’s priority list was a “political rort of the highest order”.
“The Liberal Government has chosen to ignore its own departmental priority list and the western suburbs in order to pork barrel and please its own constituency in leafy Brighton,” Ms Kairouz said.
Brimbank City Council Chair of Administrators Peter Lewinsky said the council would continue to lobby that grade separations at Main Rd and Furlong Rd remain a “top priority” for the Government.
“It is also a salient reminder for everyone to take extra care around trains and railway lines, something that Council reinforces and promotes through its pedestrian safety campaign,” he said.
Mr Lewinsky also sent out his condolences to the family of Teresa Ho, describing the death of a child as “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
“Like everyone else in the community, our hearts go out to the family of Teresa Ho and we offer our condolences to her family and friends,” Mr Lewinsky said.
Star contacted Transport Minister Terry Mulder but received no response.
