By Tyler Wright
Fire Brigade services are reminding drivers to drive to the road, and conditions, after a single car accident on Macclesfield Road on Tuesday 21 June.
A CFA spokesperson told the Star Mail it was notified to reports of an accident at 11:11am, with CFA trucks and crews from Yellingbo and Macclesfield Fire Brigades responding along with Victoria Police and Yarra Ranges Council.
“The incident was declared under control at 11:50, with crews remaining on scene some time after to maintain safety,” the spokesperson said.
Macclesfield Fire Briagde Captain Sharon Merritt said the crew responds to a lot of car accidents on Macclesfield Road during Winter.
“It’s a fairly narrow, windy road with a reasonably fast speed limit, so sometimes people take the bends too fast,” Sharon said.
“Lack of concentration is often another issue; people are looking at their phones, and suddenly they’ve got a bend in front of them that’s a lot sharper than they thought it was going to be.
It’s also that road [with] a lot of wildlife on it, particularly deer and kangaroos – and both of those have a tendency to just jump out in front of you.”
This comes after Yarra Ranges Council puts together an application for the 2022 Transport Accident Commission (TAC) Local Government Grant Program aiming to reduce death and serious injury in pedestrians and cyclists.
“Generally winters tend to get more car accidents; speed with the wet weather and lack of concentration are usually the major problems,” Sharon said.
“Macclesfield Road is so windy and narrow and sometimes people [cut corners] on bends and then they end up on the wrong side of the road and someone coming the other way…they’ve clipped cars coming the other way because they cut the corners going around the bends.”
Over the winter months, Macclesfield Fire Brigade is mostly called out to large animal rescues for horses and cows, alongside road accidents.
“Pay attention and drive to the conditions – you don’t have to do the speed limits if it’s raining,” the brigade captain said.
