Rodney Stevens

A Yamba resident says motorists speeding up Clarence Street from Turners Beach toward the often-congested restaurant and shopping precinct is “an accident waiting to happen” and more measures are needed to slow drivers down.

John Maxwell, who lives on the corner of Clarence and Wooli Street’s, said cars speed past his house at more than 60km/h and he has lost count of the number of times there have almost been serious incidents as there are no signs to advise of a speed limit on Clarence Street.

“They use the hill coming up from Turners Beach as a racetrack, not everyone of course, but there are some people that do some crazy things,” he said.

“It is all open, there is no signage whatsoever, and suddenly the cars travelling at speed get into a narrow little area where there are a whole lot of shops, cafes, restaurants and a podiatrist.

“A lot of old people go there to visit the podiatrist, there are people backing out all of the time and women are parking to go to the hairdressers and walking across the road with their babies which I think is “an accident waiting to happen”.

“You see some people do some crazy stuff, you wait for the crash or wait to see what happened and we’ve seen many close calls there.”

Mr Maxwell said the lack of signage is also confusing people travelling along Clarence Street toward Turners Beach because they notice all the shops have ended and as there are no signs, they do a U-turn and go back along Clarence Street.

“If you drive through the shops there at 40km/h you are going too fast anyway, I think,” he said.

“Not long ago a car came past our place going far too quickly and went straight over the hill and smashed into the guard rail that cuts off Wooli Street, it smashed the car to smithereens.”

In an attempt to prevent further crashes and improve pedestrian safety, Mr Maxwell said he contacted Clarence Valley Council who sent out an employee to discuss his concerns.

Some of the concerns Mr Maxwell raised with council have been addressed, but he says there needs to be more signage two-thirds of the way up Clarence Street from Turners Beach to warn drivers of the speed limit and to slow down as the approach the shopping precinct.

He said council painted a yellow line on the corner of Clarence and Wooli Street’s outside the Indian Fusion Tapas Bar and Restaurant to stop cars parking near the corner so vision when turning left isn’t obscured, which worked well.

Another improvement council made, Mr Maxwell said, was to repaint the stop line marking at the top of High Street and reinstall a stop sign, as cars were going through the intersection without stopping, which he said also works well.

“For some reason they are simply not interested in putting a sign coming up Clarence Street asking people to slow down,” he said.

“It really does need a 40km/h sign at least, going past the shops there should be the slowest part in Yamba, you have people parking and backing out all the time and trucks coming and going.”

Mr Maxwell said council installed a device to measure the traffic speed on Clarence Street during the Covid lockdown when there was minimal traffic, and determined from that no speed signs were needed on the street.

Clarence Valley Council Road Safety Officer Alana Brooks said council has not received any complaints over the past two years in relation to speeding in the Yamba CBD.

“Clarence Valley Council is currently developing an Active Transport Strategy that includes initiatives to improve pedestrian safety on both Clarence Street and Wooli Street in Yamba,” she said.

“These initiatives are in response to concerns raised by the community and observations of the project team.

“They include recommendations for lower speed limits in high pedestrian activity areas.”

Ms Brooks said reducing speed limits requires more than just signs to be installed.

“Lower speed limits generally require new infrastructure, such as speed platforms, to support and encourage slower speeds,” she said.

“Signage alone is unlikely to have a meaningful impact.

“While the Active Transport Strategy has not been finalised, we will be reaching out to the community in the coming months to gather feedback on the draft.”

Council encourages concerned residents to provide feedback on areas where people are speeding.

“We encourage residents to contact Council and provide more details about the specific areas on Clarence Street and Wooli Street where issues such as excessive speeding, high-speed limits, and inadequate signage are causing concerns,” Ms Brooks said.

“This will enable us to conduct a more comprehensive review.”