Close call

It had been a typical morning in the Woodford household.

Mum had already left for work and dad was rushing to get Jasmine to the bus on time.

It is a scene that plays out in homes across Australia.

Little did they know that less than 20 minutes later they would be trapped in the wreckage of the family car and potentially fighting for life.

It was a series of unfortunate events that led to the accident.

When Don Woodford turned the key in his car that morning the battery was flat.

By the time Don and Jasmine had changed cars and set off, the school bus had already left.

So they followed it with the plan that Jasmine could jump on at the next stop.

Driving down Palmerston St from Baddaginnie they approached the Hume Fwy and and crossed safely into the central reservation where they stopped and waited to cross the southbound lane.

Jasmine said she was looking left down the freeway as was Don.

‘‘We both looked and the road was clear,’’ she said.

Unfortunately it was not.

The car pulled out and they were immediately hit by a ute travelling south.

Whether they did not see it because of the glare of the sun is unknown.

Maybe the time it took the ute to reach the junction from the bend in the road was quicker than the time it took for them to pull out.

Either way, by then it was too late.

The Woodfords’ car was hit, spinning it across the southbound lane, coming to a rest facing the opposite direction.

Don and Jasmine were trapped inside.

One of the few strokes of good luck the Woodfords experienced that morning was that CFA Captain Rod Cook witnessed the crash.

He jumped into action, summoning emergency services and directing traffic before anyone even had a chance to dial triple zero.

At that stage it was unclear if either Don or Jasmine was conscious.

Don told his wife Colleen he remembered little in between setting off from home and getting to hospital.

Jasmine said her first memory after the bright light and smashing sound was being put in the ambulance.

While the rescue was under way Colleen Woodford was at work completely unaware air ambulances had been deployed and the SES was working to free her husband and daughter from the family car.

‘‘I was at work in Seymour and I got a phone call at about 10.20,’’ Colleen said.

‘‘It was Benalla Police and I had no idea why they’d be calling.

‘‘I actually thought what’s Jasmine done now?

‘‘And then they tell me my husband and daughter were in a serious accident.

‘‘They said it wasn’t life threatening, but they were in hospital.

‘‘It’s the phone call that everyone dreads.’’

Colleen headed straight to Melbourne to see Don and Jasmine who had been air-lifted to the Alfred and Royal Children’s Hospital respectively.

The crash had occurred just after 8am.

Jasmine had been rescued from the wreckage quite quickly, although the process of helping Don was more difficult.

Jasmine had almost arrived in Melbourne before the air ambulance waiting for Don had even left the crash site.

She had suffered a broken arm, while Don had fractured a C2 vertebrae.

Both are expected to make a full recovery, but if the crash had occurred a split second later it might have been much worse.

‘‘It was only one second that stopped there being fatalities that day,’’ Colleen said.

‘‘A split second later and the ute would have t-boned Jasmine’s door and she might not be here now telling us what happened.

‘‘I know the community have had meetings and have lobbied for an overpass.

‘‘I am told land has been put aside, but I’ve also been told it will take two more fatalities for it to be deemed a dangerous junction.

‘‘If that is true I cannot believe it.

‘‘Why do more people need to die to fix such an obvious problem.’’

VicRoads has confirmed Colleen had been given incorrect information regarding this.

It released a statement saying:

‘‘There is no minimum number of road fatalities that trigger a road safety upgrade.

‘‘We seek the advice of safety experts on a range of factors including the number of entry points along the route, the nature of the road environment, surrounding developments, road-user types and the crash history.’’

However, Colleen said it was only down to luck that there had not been any more fatalities at that intersection.

‘‘We were so lucky that a CFA captain was nearby at the time,’’ Colleen said.

Jasmine and Don are now home.

Colleen is having to run around and look after her patients, while dealing with insurers, police and hospitals.

However, she said she would much rather be doing that than arranging one or two funerals.

Jasmine said she did not understand why an overpass had not been built at that junction.

‘‘An overpass might be expensive, but what does it cost to fly air ambulances around the state? Or to pay the police to attend?’’ she said.

‘‘Me and Dad realise how lucky we were.

‘‘If that was a truck, or if it happened a second later we might not be here now and mum would be working out funeral arrangements.’’

Car crashes at one of the Hume junctions without an overpass are not an anomaly.

They happen regularly and many people feel it is not a matter of IF but WHEN another person will die.

It is a no-brainer that these should be overpasses or underpasses.

Unfortunately it is also a fact that to build such a thing is very costly.

This type of upgrade also tends to be reactionary.

As VicRoads said, crash history is one of the factors it uses to decide if a junction is dangerous.

But why do we have to wait for more crashes, and potentially fatalities, if the problems are obvious?

We know these crossings are dangerous.

We know vehicles crash at them regularly.

Yet very little seems to be done in terms of addressing any issues.

Last year The Ensign reported on community pressure to make the Hume junction at Winton safe.

That led to give way signs being replaced with stop signs.

That intersection might still have an element of risk, but we haven’t heard of a single crash there since that was done.

‘‘Our thoughts are with the family, friends and first responders impacted by last week’s crash,’’ Regional Roads Victoria acting regional director (North East) Nathan Matthews said.

‘‘Safety is always our absolute priority.

‘‘We will work with Victoria Police to investigate the contributing factors and determine whether any immediate safety measures are required at the intersection.

‘‘As always we’re urging drivers to pay extra attention on our roads.’’

Hopefully they will address some of the issues with this junction.

A trip out to the crash site confirmed that the Baddaginnie intersection still has give way signs.

There is no stop sign in sight.

And while this particular crash would not have been affected by signage, as the car was stopped, these roads are used by many people from out of the area.

People might have no idea that a country road would suddenly cross a major freeway with a 110km/h limit.

However, while improved signage might help in some incidents, this crash was caused by a lack of visibility.

Being immediately after a bend in the road makes this one more dangerous than other similar intersections.

And it begs the question that if an overpass, or underpass, is not financially viable, why is the intersection still open?

While shutting it would be sure to inconvenience some people, it must be a better option than waiting for another serious crash.