sa motor
RAA Patrol Team Leader Trevor Pursche and General Manager of Automotive Services Dorothy Nycz. IMAGE: RAA/Radhika Gupta.
RAA Patrols enter a new age
RAA has added a Peugeot e-Partner electric van to its Road Service fleet as it looks to reduce its carbon emissions. The six-month trial, which began in January, will help to determine how RAA’s patrol fleet is transitioned to EVs.
A range of factors are being tested, including the charging logistics during a day’s work, and the running costs and emissions compared with the existing Toyota HiAce Road Service vans.
RAA’s current patrol van fleet contributes to more than seven per cent of the organisation’s carbon emissions. However, RAA aims to reduce this as part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050.
Meanwhile, RAA is also undertaking a six-month mobile electric vehicle charging trial to help allay EV range anxiety.
A 2023 RAA survey revealed that concerns about EV driving range and running out of battery charge were major factors preventing members from buying an EV.
The 7kW charger being used in the trial can provide a range of 10-15km in 15 minutes – enough charge for a driver to reach the closest EV charging station or home.
The mobile charger can top up three cars before it needs to be recharged.
The trial, delivered in conjunction with RAA’s partner Club Assist, is being undertaken in the Adelaide metropolitan area.
SA road in focus
In each edition of sa move, we shine the spotlight on a South Australian road.
Length
Casualty crashes
Minor injuries
Serious injuries
Fatalities
The road: Lincoln Highway
Why it’s a focus
Lincoln Highway runs from Lincoln Gap – where it joins the Eyre Highway – to Port Lincoln. It’s part of the most direct route between Adelaide and Port Lincoln, passing through Whyalla and Cowell.
Heavy vehicles account for about 20 per cent of the traffic volume. Grain trucks haul loads around the region and use the highway frequently.
RAA’s 2023 Eyre Peninsula Regional Road Assessment found that locals were concerned about maintenance issues, insufficient overtaking lanes, and traffic congestion, particularly involving trucks and caravans.
Increased heavy-vehicle traffic resulting from the closure of the Eyre Peninsula rail network in 2019 has exacerbated these problems.
Crash history (2018–2022)
Single-vehicle, run-off-the-road crashes accounted for 58 per cent of casualty crashes along the Lincoln Highway.
Rollovers represented half of these single-vehicle crashes. The two fatalities were the result of a vehicle hitting a fixed object and a head-on crash. Cars accounted for 83 per cent of vehicles involved in crashes, followed by trucks (12 per cent) and motorcycles (five per cent).
What RAA wants done
RAA believes road maintenance is needed to extend pavement life, particularly near Port Neill and between Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln.
Widening of the sealed shoulder is also needed between the Middleback Ranges and Whyalla, and between Cowell and Tumby Bay.
RAA recommends intersection upgrades and the construction of up to six new overtaking lanes in places lacking safe overtaking opportunities.
Planned and current upgrades
Four new overtaking lanes have been constructed between Whyalla and Port Augusta, and two between Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln.
Key intersections in Port Lincoln are being upgraded this year to improve safety at roundabouts, particularly for pedestrians. Much needed pavement renewal work will be included in these upgrades.
A horror year on SA roads
Last year, 117 people lost their lives on South Australian roads – a 65 per cent increase on 2022 and the worst year since 2010 when 118 people were killed.
There were also 856 serious injuries recorded in 2023 – 204 more than the previous year.
RAA Senior Manager of Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain says that while the downward trend of road fatalities and injuries over the past few years has been encouraging, the terrible figures in 2023 show we need to focus on what contributes to crashes.
“This is essential to achieve the sustained reduction necessary to at least meet, and preferably better, the 2031 targets identified in South Australia’s Road Safety Strategy,” Charles says.
“These statistics aren’t just numbers; they represent family tragedies and ongoing rehabilitation for those who’ve been seriously injured in road crashes, as well as the wider community impact.
“It’s so important we take care on the roads, so we can all get home safely.”
Last year recorded the highest fatality figure for vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists) since 1998.
Of the 19 pedestrian deaths, 14 occurred in the metro area and five in the regions, while eight cyclists were killed in SA, including seven in the metro area. Twenty three motorcyclists also lost their lives on SA roads last year.
Men accounted for almost threequarters of road deaths and the top age group represented was 20 to 29 year-old road users.
Twelve roads recorded multiple fatalities, including five each on Sturt Highway and Main North Road, and four each on Eyre Highway, Riddoch Highway and Main South Road.
Federal Government scraps funding for SA road projects
The Federal Government has pulled funding for 50 road projects nationally and five locally, including the Truro Bypass on the Sturt Highway.
In June 2023, the Federal Government commissioned an independent, three-month review of major infrastructure projects that had already been allocated federal funds by the previous government.
This was after the number of federally-funded infrastructure projects blew out from 150 to 800. The review committee handed down its recommendations last September, and as a result the Federal Government pulled funding from dozens of national and local projects.
The Truro Bypass (pictured) and Hahndorf project – which included improvements to Handorf’s main street, an upgrade of the Mount Barker interchange and an expansion of the Verdun interchange to provide a heavy traffic alternative around the popular tourist destination – were among the South Australian developments to lose funding.
RAA Senior Manager of Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain says the withdrawal of funding for South Australian projects is disappointing.
“The Truro Bypass is a key freight route, and the project would have improved freight productivity and made that stretch of road safer,” Charles says.
“Sturt Highway is an important part of the national road network and those works will still need to be completed.”
While an extra $2.7 billion has been allocated to the North-South Corridor, Charles says it’s disappointing this funding seems to have come at the expense of five other SA projects.
“RAA welcomes the Federal Government’s investment in the North-South Corridor, but we’d like to see this in addition to – not instead of – the funding already committed for other projects,” he says.
“South Australia’s road maintenance backlog is approaching $2 billion. We need more investment in our roads to make the network safer and more efficient.”
Five SA projects that lost funding
Truro Bypass
Hahndorf upgrade – the State Government is now reviewing both the Mount Barker Interchange and the Verdun Interchange components of the original project
Tiers Road and Nairne Road junctions with Onkaparinga Valley Road, Woodside
An overtaking lane on Main South Road between Myponga and Cape Jervis
Old Belair Road and James Road intersection upgrade at Belair
National award for local repairer
Eblen Collision Repairs has won the Best Shop Large award at the 2023 Paint and Panel Bodyshop Awards, which recognise excellence in the collision repair industry.
The family-run business, based at Somerton Park, was the only South Australian body shop to be named a finalist in the national awards held on the Gold Coast.
Eblen Collison Repairs has been an RAA Approved Repairer since 1990. Dario Tonon from Eblen is pictured, right, receiving the award.
IMAGES: Aimee Jordee Photography, Getty, RAA.
