BEVERIDGE residents have called their Old Sydney Rd an accident waiting to happen.

They say the southern section of the road, from Beveridge to Mickleham, must be improved because lives are at risk.

Robert Scanlon, who runs a farm with a 7km frontage to Old Sydney Rd, said the road should be fixed before another life is lost.

“It’s a really badly maintained council road,” he said.

Mr Scanlon said he had contacted the council about the poor state of the road a week before a motorist died there, just over two years ago.

“When that young guy was flying down the road and lost control of his car, that was a real tragedy that didn’t need to happen,” he said.

Mitchell Shire Council repaired the road with binding agents last year, but a constant flow of trucks, many of which go to the Christmas tree farm, have caused serious damage to the road since.

When Star contacted the council about its plans to improve the road, a Mitchell Shire spokesman responded by e-mail, saying “council won’t be commenting”.

Mr Scanlon said the council did not “regularly maintain” the road.

“It’s like we’re on the edge of the shire and we’re the last thing on anybody’s list,” he said.

But he did not place all the blame on council. He also lamented the excessive trucks and dangerous drivers who used the road.

“Trucks come at you at 100 km/h on a road that a car shouldn’t be doing 80 on.”

Rachael Gaghan, who lives on the bitumen road just before it becomes gravel, survived a horrific crash on the road two years ago and saved another man’s life in another accident six years ago.

“I’d like the road to be safer, but I don’t really want it to be sealed because as soon as it is, the traffic we’ll have will be huge because it’s a shortcut,” she said.

Mrs Gaghan said it was not the rough surface and several potholes that made the road so dangerous, but the sections of road where motorists cannot see very far ahead.

When a car smashed head-on into her, Mrs Gaghan only knew there was an oncoming vehicle because of the dust flying about, so she slowed to 40 km/h.

“If I was going 80 I don’t know if I would be here,” she said.

“The council has improved the road slightly, but they don’t maintain it at all. It’s not all their fault, it’s the drivers, because when the shire fix its up a little the cars go twice as fast.”

Neighbour Harold Cocking said trucks carrying fill to the Christmas tree farm had destroyed the road.

“Council spent a lot of money doing the section of road from the gravel to where it meets the Hume Freeway.

“It was really good, the best it has been for years. But the trucks that they allowed to cart all that fill in have wrecked it.”