The partner of a woman killed in a motorbike accident at Kaarimba on New Year’s Eve has joined a call by nearby residents for action to fix the region’s roads.
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Jaye Munn died after her motorbike hit a massive pothole and flipped on the Shepparton-Barmah Rd at 7.21pm on December 31.
Her partner Glenn “Memphis” Hood was travelling in a car close behind her and watched in horror as Ms Munn’s motorcycle hit the pothole, before flipping over.
Her head hit the road first before the motorcycle landed on her.
He ran to help but she died in his arms just before the ambulance arrived 28 minutes later.
The pair had been on their way home to Longwood after the Nathalia Show ‘n’ Shine where Ms Munn’s motorbike won the best bike at the show award.
The road was flooded during the October floods and spent quite some time under water.
A section over a couple of kilometres of the road is now badly potholed.
Mr Hood said the pothole Ms Nunn hit covered much of that side of the road.
“It’s massive. It takes up the whole lane,” he said.
“She’s hit close to the (centre) white line.
“There was no way to get around it.”
He also said there was inadequate signage warning of it, and no markings on the road to show where it was.
There was one sign just before it, but Mr Hood said it was too close to allow motorists to reduce speed in time.
Mr Hood said it was not good enough that a death had to occur before anything was done.
”It’s torn our lives apart right now,’’ he said.
“We are absolutely devastated.
“She was just a vibrant, beautiful person.
“It’s gut-wrenching.
“VicRoads has a duty of care for everyone that travels on the roads.
“They have failed in their duty of care.”
Kaarimba residents and people from other nearby towns are also calling for something to be done on the section of road.
Janelle Hiller and Corey Fordham live just near the corner of Shepparton-Barmah Rd and Kaarimba Hall Rd where the accident happened.
The couple has been contacting Regional Roads Victoria for weeks about the state of the road – especially the pothole where Ms Munn died.
In November they sat out the front of their house for hours one night slowing down the traffic because they were afraid something would happen.
After putting in four calls to RRV that day, they called the police out, who also spent time there slowing traffic and moving some of the signs to try and highlight the several significant potholes along that stretch of road.
While the road was flooded in October, Ms Hiller said RRV had patched that particular pothole in recent weeks, but it had “made it 10 times worse”.
“They made it into a big jump in the middle of the road,” she said.
“I spent yesterday (Monday) in tears.
“It’s so senseless it happened.”
“We tried so hard to prevent it,” Mr Fordham said.
Ms Hiller and Mr Fordham said 40km/h signs had been erected on that section of road since Ms Munn’s death but said it was not enough and some drivers were still not heeding them.
They just want the road fixed properly.
While the News was at the site on Tuesday afternoon, two other residents who regularly use the road stopped to air their views.
Nathalia resident Kim Whitehead said motorists were having to drive on the wrong side of the road to get around potholes.
“I understand it was flooded, but how long has it been?” she said.
“It’s got to be fixed.
“Or more people are going to die.”
Ms Whitehead said instead of patching the road, Regional Roads Victoria needed to put up lights and completely re-do both sides of the road in that section.
Kaarimba resident Ellen Morcombe said the pothole was difficult to see as you were approaching it, and was sad that someone had lost their life there.
“It (the road surface) is because of the floods,’’ she said.
“No-one can help that.
“But it needs to be fixed.
“It’s horrific.
“And it’s just a waste of someone’s life.”
In the wake of the tragic crash, State Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe said something needed to be done about the state of the region’s roads immediately.
“It’s so frustrating,” she said.
“The roads are in a critical, unsafe, state.
“To think that we’ve had a death for it to be highlighted is so upsetting.”
Ms O’Keeffe said that road authorities should be working closer with councils and communities on its dangerous roads.
“That was happening, but why wasn’t it actioned?’’ she said.
“A lot of work needs to be done.
“And it needs to be immediate.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them this bad.”
While she said flooding had made some roads worse, she said it was a lack of maintenance and investment in regional roads and while the Victorian Government had put money forward, it “wasn’t enough”.
According to the Department of Transport and Planning, more than 130 individual road projects were scheduled to be delivered on Barmah-Shepparton Rd between now and April as part of the Victorian Government’s $165 million emergency road repair package.
The works will include asphalt patching, edge repairs, large-scale pavement repairs, drain cleaning, tree trimming and other works.
A spokesperson said they had lowered the speed on sections of the road until warmer, drier conditions allowed RRV to deliver long-lasting repairs.
Senior Journalist