Police Minister Costa has requested and received a report from the local Highway Patrol regarding dangerous roads and the need for double patrol staff if the Charcoal factory goes ahead, also the need for all Highway patrol officers to be trained in heavy vehicle inspections, etc.

Please contact The Hon. Michael Costa, MLC
Fax: (02) 9228 5699
Email: office@police.minister.nsw.gov.au
Write: Governor Macquarie Tower, Level 36, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney 2000.

Use your own words from the following, and encourage him to carefully consider the very serious concerns of the local people and local police.

Concern about road safety issues associated with the large increase in heavy vehicles on the Princes and Kings Highways that this charcoal factory will cause. The Kings Highway is treacherous, as stated in a recent NRMA report.

The Princes Highway is a dangerous, narrow pavement in poor condition.

Concern about the effect of these vehicles on the stability of Clyde Mountain.

Concern that children and the elderly will be at risk, particularly at Mogo, where a school is right next to the highway, the road is very narrow, and pedestrian traffic is high.

We are outraged at the number of deaths on our roads here - they are the highest in the State. While rest of the states road toll decreases our defies trends and continues
to rise.

Ask Mr Costa to please speak to our local police as they were not consulted in the EIS process.

B'Bay princes H'way and Clyde Mountain can only be described as goat tracks in poor condition with narroiw shoulders, poor alignment and 60 to 76% over-take prohibited.

Clyde mountain is closed often due to rock slides and is heavily fogged in winter months. 130 signposted bends. 2 recognised black spots with climbing accident and death rates. It is our only direct link to ACT and services.

Truck figures presented by the company were shown as annual figures and spread over 1/3 from the west, 1/3rd from the east. and 1/3 from the south. This reduced the impact figures considerably. However, the EIS shows that at some stage when logging is conducted around the Braidwood area, 1/3 of every year, every single truck from the Charcoal plant will be on the Clyde Mountain daily.

Timber coming down to Mogo and charcoal and flux wood going up to Lithgow Smelter account for 86 to 92 trucks every 10hr day or one every 6 to 7 minutes.

There are a number of hard tight bends on the Clyde that smaller trucks have trouble turning withour crossing over the double lines. We have seen large trucks having to back up to get around around Government Bend especially.

This increase in truck traffic cannot be allowed to happen until such time as our roads are improved sufficiently to ensure safety for road users. Please take all of the above into consideration.

See here for background information and further details from the NRMA report.

The Illawarra Mercury 30 January 2002 contained two highly relevant articles on the Princes Highway - "The long and deadly highway" and "Education will stop deaths"