FEARFUL: Bob Hudson and his grandson Charles Shaddock are pictured with their dog Skylar standing in the wheel tracks of the 24th vehicle to skid off a gravel section of Pioneer Road, Hunterview, and go through their family property’s fence.
CHARLES Shaddock and his grandfather Bob Hudson see Pioneer Road, Hunterview, as an accident waiting to happen.
They fear someone will be killed on a 600 metre gravel section that includes an S-bend near their family property’s front gate.
Their concern of a fatal motor vehicle accident has prompted them to publicly speak out.
Mr Hudson said 24 vehicles have skidded off the gravel and gone through the front fence in the past 15 years.
That’s about one every seven months for the entire 15 years.
But the situation has become much worse in recent months as speeding workers going to and from Upper Hunter coalmines have increasingly used Pioneer Road as a shortcut.
Two vehicles went through the fence in a four day period earlier this month.
“And this is just our fence we’re talking about, plenty of cars have come off the gravel and gone through other people’s fences,” Mr Hudson said.
“It’s treacherous, I can’t understand how someone hasn’t already been killed.
“The council grades it all the time, then it rains and it’s full of ruts and potholes and has to be graded again.”
Mr Shaddock said: “We’ve spoken to the council but they say they don’t have any money.
“It’s only a matter of time before there is a real serious crash and then who’ll be responsible?”
Several Singleton councillors have raised the issue of coal industry workers increasing safety risks on local thoroughfares and, as a result, a report on Pioneer Road is expected to be tabled at the next council meeting on August 6.
It should detail redesign and land acquisition costs, traffic counts, funding options and a construction timeframe.
Mr Shaddock said members of his family had offered to sell part of their 28 hectares to the council so Pioneer Road could be straightened and tarsealed.
Mr Shaddock said the regular cost of fence repairs, the inconvenience of doing them and the possibility of cattle and horses on the property escaping onto Pioneer Road had forced family members to consider building guard rails on their boundary.
“The best option would be for the council to acquire land, straighten the road out and tarseal it,” Mr Shaddock said.
The council’s acting assets director Alan Fletcher said the land around Pioneer Road was zoned for residential housing and upgrading the road’s S-bend section would be funded by land developers.
“Pioneer Road has been progressively developed since 2004,” he said.
“All of the Pioneer Road upgrade work with adjoining residential development has been funded by the residential land developer, this is a standard development industry arrangement.”
The council’s planning director Mark Ihlein said the council was “keen to talk to developers to facilitate further improvements of Pioneer Road and Hunterview urban development area.”
