Crash risk growing
I AM writing to express my concern about the McCallum and Murlong streets intersection.
On Tuesday, August 16, while travelling south on Murlong Street, intending make a left-hand turn at the intersection, I was horrified to have a pedestrian cross straight out in front of me, without considering either inbound nor outbound traffic on the very busy Murlong Street.
This is a notoriously busy intersection, particularly around school times and I have seen many near misses here where people try to negotiate the traffic.
Any works that provide more facilities for our town and encourage the community to be active are of course beneficial, my concern sits with the safety of users of the path and the road users in the area.
Queuing of traffic can be observed at peak times in both directions of Murlong Street. This is exacerbated when buses or other heavy vehicles are stopped at the front of traffic, eliminating the ability for any flow of vehicles to proceed in a left hand turn.
I feel strongly that the dangers posed by the much-improved walking track, without any upgrade to the intersection, should have been given much more consideration.
With the decommissioning of the channel, there was room available to widen the road, introduce a roundabout or at the very minimum, widen the intersection on Murlong Street to allow for the free moving of traffic into the left-hand slip lanes.
With clogged-up traffic sitting stationary on the north side of Murlong Street, and the walking track being more frequently used then it was before the upgrade, this raises even further safety issues where pedestrians take the opportunity to duck through the traffic who are giving way.
Concurrently, the road users are focusing on the oncoming traffic around them to wait for a break in the oncoming vehicles to either cross over the intersection or make a turn.
This already bottle-necked intersection has simply had more users introduced to it, with no alleviation of any of the existing problems and has never been more dangerous.
Our town continues to grow and this piece of road desperately needs upgrading to improve the flow of traffic and the ability to cross or turn safely.
I am very concerned that it is simply a matter of time, now more than ever before, that someone is badly injured or worse at this intersection.
Neville Hoare,
Swan Hill
Curtains pulled
ON Monday, August 22, about 10am, I took my eight-year-old to the Nyah West Op Shop to look at possible costumes for Book Week.
I had a couple of bags of curtains a work colleague and friend had taken down from her house to put blinds up, which I thought I would donate while there.
Upon entering the store, I was greeted warmly by a lovely older lady and so I gave her the curtains and explained how I had them given to me and hadn’t had a chance to drop them in.
She was very grateful and so on that note, I continued on my way around the store to have a browse with my daughter.
It wasn’t long into this I then heard a couple of other ladies having discussions and then calling other staff over to look over the curtains that were apparently not up to their standards.
Comments along the lines of how they smelled and whether to throw them out or if they would wash up albeit unaware my daughter and I were in the store.
They did this also in the middle of the store, I might add, which is also unprofessional.
Thankfully my daughter was unaware of the comments, however I was, and so I thought it would be best to end our little trip to the store prematurely due to embarrassment and not wanting to expose to my daughter to what can happen when a good deed is done and items are donated.
The ladies voices started to quieten down as the lovely lady who had greeted us pointed out that we were still in the store.
I then came out from behind a shelf to make an exit and the lady who had greeted us realised I had heard and witnessed the event and was very apologetic.
She then let my daughter keep a couple of little stuffed toys she was going to purchase.
I apologised if the curtains weren’t just washed and up to the op shop’s standards then left the store on good terms with her.
I had a second bag in my car, so when I went to my mother’s house, I pulled them out to see if she wanted them and explained what had just occurred.
The curtains were a netting type curtain and came from a smoke free home, but a little dusty, however not worth the ungratefulness and certainly not worth how it was handled in the op shop.
I hope moving forward the other staff are more aware of their surroundings and that an op shop is for unwanted goods to be donated and purchased and not a boutique store, to be mindful that if items are not up to their standards they may be up to another persons.
After all, an op shop is a shop selling second-hand goods for charitable funds.
Name and address supplied
