Locals say the Lakeland intersection is dangerous for all road users, especially truckies. Photo: Supplied.
Truckies and locals have called for action on a dangerous Lakeland intersection “before someone is killed”.
The Mulligan Highway and Peninsula Developmental Road (PDR) intersection in front of the Lakeland Roadhouse has been described as a “nightmare” for truck drivers turning south onto the highway from Laura.
Truck driver Raymond Fitzgerald said that despite having decades of experience behind the wheel, the turn still made him nervous.
As a regular contractor for Cook Shire Council, Mr Fitzgerald said he went through the intersection an average of twice a week, but during the peak work season, it could be up to 30 times a day.
“You pull up at that intersection, then you can’t see through the left-hand side of your truck,” he said.
“You’ve got to take your seatbelt off to climb over the steering wheel, to see if there’s anyone coming from the north.
“By the time you sit back down in your seat and get going again, there’s a few seconds there, and someone could be there.
“It is a disaster waiting to happen.”
Mr Fitzgerald said while he had never witnessed an accident at the intersection, he personally had experienced close calls, and had spoken to several other truckies who all described it as a “terrible turn”.
He believed a possible solution could be to change the side of the traffic that gave way.
“It’ll be so much better if the give way was on the Cooktown road and the Mareeba side of that intersection, because they’re both on a straight lane of road,” he said.
“If they gave way and let the Laura traffic out, it would be so much easier. Just being on that turn, it’s a very dangerous situation.
“That’s my thought, but it’s the major highway, so it’s very hard to change the give ways around, I believe.”
The truck driver said the risk only increased during tourist season, when the roads were full of caravans and cars inexperienced on the PDR.
“When you get the tourists and the caravanners, they seem to be doing less [than the speed limit], because they haven’t been here and they’re looking where they want to go, so the risk goes up a lot higher,” he said.
“You can hear them on the radio, saying ‘Are we going to pull up at the roadhouse, are we going to go to the coffee shop’, umming and ahing at that turn.
“You’re thinking, quick, make up your mind, because I want to come out.”
The angle of the intersection means drivers turning south onto the highway have little to no visibility of oncoming traffic.
Lakeland local Shallyn Bloomfield claimed the community had been pushing for something to be done about the intersection for a decade, but concerns had gone unanswered.
“I bought my house here 10 years ago, and I’m pretty sure it was brought up in the Progress Association meetings not long after that, and yet, nothing’s done,” she told Cape York Weekly.
“It’s the normal scenario of the money gets spent where the people are, but people all travel this way.
“It’s a bucket list thing to go to the Cape, so everybody does that at some point, and that intersection is just flat-out dangerous.”
Ms Bloomfield also claimed there was at least one concave mirror in the road tech shed, which could be put up to help drivers see oncoming traffic, but it was currently not approved by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR).
“I have been hassling the road tech boys every time they come to the pub for years about when they’re going to put up that mirror that’s sitting in the shed collecting dust,” she said.
“I know it’s there, they know it’s there; TMR just haven’t given the work order, so they are legally not allowed to do anything without the work order.”
In a statement, TMR did not respond to questioning about why no action had been taken over the past decade, but encouraged residents to report concerns on 13 19 40.
“As part of our standard process, TMR will review available data for the Mulligan Highway and Peninsula Development Road intersection to determine whether further investigation or safety improvements are needed,” a spokesperson said.
