AAMI, an insurance company, recently released their Crash Index for 2017. Bad news for Chermside residents. Gympie Road still ranks high in Brisbane’s top five worst accident hotspots, ranking in the third spot, following Ipswich Road in Annerley and Mains Road in Sunnybank, which claimed the first and second spots.
Traffic Bottleneck on Gympie Road
Gympie Road claim to notoriety has been its consistent inclusion in Brisbane’s worst crash hotspots. In fact, it was Brisbane’s worst accident hotspot in 2015. Although now down to third place, Gympie Road clearly remains to be a problem, mostly due to the heavy volume of traffic that passes this major artery.
As a major road in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Gympie Road caters to a lot of vehicles travelling between the CBD and the northern suburbs, including the Sunshine Coast. Just this month, Snarl Live Brisbane Traffic Updates recorded multi-vehicular crashes along the Gympie Road. Throughout the year, these multiple crashes often result to multiple fatalities.
(Photo credit: Brisbane Development)
According to the study conducted by Brisbane Development, Chermside has seen urban densification that attracted people to move in the suburb and propose new dwellings within the Chermside-Kedron area along the Gympie Road. This urbanisation and densification has led to constant gridlocks covering large sections of the road.
Brisbane Development has said that road widening and remarking bus lanes would not address the issue, but a shift of mode of transport can. Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner mentioned that the Brisbane Metro will be expanded to Chermside, and that this should reconfigure Gympie Road from a car-centric road to a multi-transit road, hopefully reducing congestion and the incidence of multiple crashes.
This proposal is not new. In fact, Gympie Road has a dedicated Chermside Line with tramcars running down the road in the 1950s. The line is in between two lanes of traffic with enough space to accommodate vehicles and even rose gardens.
Main Causes of Road Crashes
Aside from the traffic bottleneck on the Gympie Road, the AAMI Crash Index reveals that 45% of motorists believe that distractions, such as mobile phones, are the common cause of crashes. Despite the dangers of “texting while driving”, a significant number of motorists are still taking the risk. AAMI study shows that 3% of Queenslanders text while driving and 47% engage in conversation with a hands-free kit.
“Concentration is key, especially when travelling in heavy traffic. It’s important to leave enough room between you and the car in front, keep to the speed limit and avoid distractions like mobile phones … Even when used legally, mobile phones can be very distracting for drivers – particularly phone calls. We would urge drivers to limit their use of phones while they’re driving and only operate them when it is absolutely safe to do so,” AAMI Spokesperson Michael Mills said.
Overspeeding and tailgating are also common causes of road crashes. Motorists should be mindful of safe driving behaviour when travelling Gympie Road and any other road. For travellers on Gympie Road, it’s best to be safe, than sorry.