A CROSS at the entrance of Isla Street in Park Ridge is engraved with gold letters: “RIP BLAKEY”.
A pair of sunglasses hug the white post, surrounded by a bed of Blakey’s favourite beer and rolls of martial arts hand strapping.
Blakey was killed when his motorcycle ran into the back of a car.
Locals feel he was a yet another senseless victim of our roads – not due to alcohol or speeding; rather, a legal loophole allowing developers to build temporary access thoroughfares without usual safety measures of a permanent road.
A simple right turn lane with some white markings could have saved his life, according to former Logan alderman Bob Lye.
“I believe he wasn’t given fair warning,” he said.
Blakey, aged 27, was trailing a car on his motorbike southbound along Chambers Flat Road.
Mr Lye said the driver of the car indicated a right turn into Isla Street.
There was no defined right turn lane as there would be on most permanent roads.
“According to a friend of his, he accelerated, and he was doing somewhere around 80km an hour and he hit [the vehicle in front], went up and over and was killed,” My Lye said.
It is however, difficult to know the exact circumstances of the accident.
It was 2019. It was about 10am. Daylight. No rain was recorded, and the temperature topped out at 27 degrees.
“If the right turn arrows were in play properly, I honestly believe he would not have been killed,” Mr Lye said.
He said there were two underlying issues. The first is the inconsistent application of safe turn lanes into the temporary entrances to new estates.
The second is the use of cul-de-sacs as temporary access points into those residential areas. Mr Lye said these were littered throughout new estates in Park Ridge.
The fatal combination of both issues has residents concerned.
Whitney Hogan has lived in Isla Street for the last three years. She has seen repeat accidents because of the right turn into the street.
“There was another that ran into the tree trying to turn in, and at one stage there were three accidents in one week just coming into Isla Street, off Chambers Flat (Road),” she said.
“I’ve got a 4-year-old son and my neighbour’s got four young boys under the age of 10, and we feel like we can’t leave them out the front because people come flying in and out of the street.”
Mrs Hogan said they were told the cul-de-sac was going to be closed and a proper entrance installed to the estate.
Logan City Councillor Jacob Heremaia said plans are afoot to remove the temporary access point into Isla Street.
“My personal perspective … is that developments should be built for residents, not for developers or anything like that,” he said.
“Developments should be conditioned to have proper road access and I don’t think those temporary access ways are safe or appropriate.”
Cr Heremaia said developers are permitted to install temporary access ways under the current town plan approved by the previous council.
He said it could take until 2025 to establish better standards in the new town plan.
“We have an opportunity with the new town plan coming in 2025 to make it better and get higher quality development,” he said.
