Local business owners are claiming a win for public safety after finding out the speed limit at a local black spot will be reduced.
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Secret Garden Cafe owner Shell Dodd and Old Ganarrin Nursery owner Rhonda Millar were both delighted to see the speed limit on the Newell Highway at the Purvis Lane intersection will be reduced from Monday.
The limit will drop from 90 kilometres an hour to 80km/h 300 metres north of the Boothenba Road and continue right to the edge of Dubbo where it become 60km/h.
Ms Millar said she had lost count of the number of accidents she had witnessed since her arrival in 2003, and in early 2014 Ms Dodd tried to lobby Roads and Maritime Services to drop the speed limit to 60 kilometres an hour.
Both women were horrified when an accident between a truck and a car claimed the life of a 76-year-old man in September.
“We see the accidents and there are so many. Some have been really badly hurt, one elderly gentleman was in hospital and never fully recovered. He passed away six months later,” Ms Millar said.
“This was the first death on the scene. The poor old guy, he came in to do shopping and was on his way home.
“It wasn’t the truck driver’s fault either. I thought he was going to have a full breakdown. He was a mess.”
That fatality led to an RMS review into the speed limit that looked at the roadside environment, traffic patterns, intersection locations and crash data, according to an RMS spokeswoman.
According to the RMS website, the speed was changed “in response to local community concerns”.
Ms Dodd had been hoping the speed limit would be lowered even further but said the 10km/h drop could be enough to avoid any more fatalities.
“I’m extremely pleased. Every day you hear horns beeping so hopefully this will stop that,” she said.
Ms Millar agreed: “It will give more time for people to see a vehicle coming around the corner. Cars can be around that corner before you can see and you have to pull out onto the road anyway because of the pine trees.”
Signs will advise motorists of the change in speed limit for at least a week.