Picton Road.

The Picton road saga continues.

The state government claims that Picton road is not only a safe road, but that it is perfectly capable of handling the extra traffic that will be generated by the Port Kembla container terminal.

The delivery of imported cars and general container traffic to the new facilities will result in an increase in truck traffic - mainly B-Doubles - dispersing that freight to southern and western Sydney.

The number of deaths on Picton road gives the lie to that claim. In particular, the number of fatal accidents that have two common factors - they occurred in rain - and they involved vehicles acquaplaning to head-on collisions.

The long term need for Picton road is for it to be transformed into a multi-lane, divided carriageway. That will not happen in the short term because to do so would involve a huge amount of money.

The immediate problem is that the heavy truck traffic has worn down the road surface resulting in depressions allowing rain to " pool ". This is exacerbated by poor roadside drainage which allows overflow - with the result that water tens to flow across the road surface.

This combination is lethal. The tyres of vehicles acquaplane when they strike a body of water and steering ability is lost, resulting in the number of head-ons occurring when rain is involved.

The state government may not have the money to turn Picton road into a divided carriageway - but it must find the money to remove those " ponding " grooves - and provide a decent drain system to stop rainwater flowing across the road.

That will cost money, but a mere fraction of what would be needed to do completely refurbish the road into a divided carriageway.

Excuses are not acceptable when lives are at stake - and the main cause of fatal accidents is known. Surely the lives of those who must use this road must rate higher on the government's list of priorities !