Waking up in Geelong

Bollards are support to protect pedestrians from stray road vehicles. But on Racecourse Road in the Melbourne suburb of Flemington, a set of bollards has done the exact opposite – destroyed a series of emergency vehicles on their way to save lives.

From ABC News on 18 June 2014:

Fire truck rolls on its way to Melbourne apartment blaze, causing traffic headaches on Racecourse Road
18 June 2014

A fire truck has rolled on its way to a blaze at an apartment block, causing traffic dramas at Flemington, in Melbourne’s north-west.

The truck flipped on tram tracks on Racecourse Road underneath CityLink about 5:00am, just 500 metres from the fire.

The road was closed for hours in both directions as crews cleaned up but one lane is now open each way.

Assistant chief fire officer Ken Brown said the four crew members in the truck managed to escape injury.

“The good news for our firefighting families and other firefighters is that all the crew are safe and well,” he said.

“[The crew’s] very shaken obviously and we’re investigating with police the cause of the truck rollover.”

But it turns out this was not the first such accident beneath this very bridge.

@yvettegray3AW this is the second emergency vehicle to hit these
Bollards in 12 months! These poor ambos were lucky!! pic.twitter.com/iHKWyFyhFe

— Eliza (@LizeBarmby) June 17, 2014

From the Herald Sun:

Paramedics escape harm in Kensington ambulance flip
Christopher Gillet
5 October 2012

Two paramedics escaped serious injury after their ambulance flipped over while on the way to a job in Melbourne’s northwest.

The ambulance was travelling along tram tracks in Kensington just before 8.30 last night.

The van flipped on Racecourse Rd when it hit a bollard. It is not yet known if the vehicle was travelling at high speeds.

A patient was not inside the vehicle at the time of the accident.

A police spokeswoman said two paramedics were taken to hospital for observation, but were not hurt.

A spokeswoman from Ambulance Victoria said another ambulance was immediately sent to cover the job.

Nine bollards were originally placed between the tram tracks on Racecourse Road to prevent vehicles turning right towards CityLink from cutting the corner.

It appears the first crash in 2012 took out the first five bollards, with only four left in this March 2014 view.

With the second crash taking out the last of them, leaving just a row holes in the concrete.

The bollards are still missing today – presumably deemed too dangerous to reinstate given the crash history.

Footnote

Another photo of the flipped fire truck

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