WA councils and residents say it should not take the loss of lives for road upgrades to finally happen when there have been pleas from the community for change.
In recent years, there have been a number of fatalities on WA roads where the community has held concerns, including the turn-offs from Bussell highway to Capel and along the South Western Highway in Bunbury.
At their annual meeting, WA local governments supported an idea for state government decision-makers to give more weight to community opinions when considering requests for speed reductions and intersection treatments.
Dardanup Shire president Mick Bennett, who proposed the idea, said he had seen too many instances of major changes happening only after a fatality.
"It usually takes one or two road deaths before it actually happens," he said.
"If they had listened to the community and their concerns and the local government … [the fix] could have happened a couple of years earlier and perhaps saved one or two lives."
Mr Bennett said near misses and smaller crashes "would be compelling evidence to get the darn things fixed".
"[We're] frustrated as hell," he said.
"The small incidents won't get reported, the close misses, just a scrape of paint, don't get reported … but they are incidents that are perhaps getting towards causing a death."
Accident waiting to happen
The idea has resonated with residents living near a busy intersection in Perth's inner north, who say they do not want to wait for someone to die before action is taken to improve safety on their local roads.
Mount Lawley resident Tracey King said concerns had been raised about the intersection of Clifton Crescent and Central Avenue for more than a decade.
She said traffic issues had worsened recently, with a Water Corporation project diverting traffic away from Beaufort Street.
"It's a daily near-miss situation at that intersection because it's an extremely busy intersection," Ms King said.
"It's just a matter of time before there's going to be another accident.
"It's not good enough to wait for serious accidents to happen before putting funding to these intersections."
Main Roads WA data showed crashes at the intersection declined over the past 10 years, with 22 crashes there over the past five years.
But Mt Lawley resident Liz Gould said near-misses and minor crashes were not always reported.
She used to live just 200 metres from the intersection but moved to a quieter street after her concerns about traffic failed to gain traction.
"What does it really take?" she said.
"It upsets me to think that it would have to take a fatality for something to happen."
City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin said the council was looking at what could be done to improve the situation and whether or not state government assistance was needed.
"All options would come back to council in terms of how we reduce speed, increase side angles … and then we would make an educated decision based on the engineering report," he said.
"It's important that when the community have concerns that it comes through a process … we don't just weigh it on the volume of people who complain."
WA roads authority Main Roads said it would consider any request from the council for funding.
"Improvements and funding are prioritised based on a number of different criteria including, but not limited to, crash rate and severity," a spokeswoman said.
She said the department took road safety "very seriously" and remained committed to helping councils improve roads in Perth and regional WA.
Local concerns a 'red flag'
Capel Chamber of Commerce president Bernie Masters was among those who fought to have the speed limit dropped on the Bussell Highway at the intersection to the Capel town site.
While agreeing that the community should be listened to, Mr Masters said crash data was always needed before funding was dished out.
"I think local perceptions and local experiences of crash history should be used as a sort of red flag for government," he said.
"If a community is really upset with a section of a road because they believe it's dangerous, government should use that to alert themselves of the need to do a further and more detailed crash statistic study in that area.
"If I was the minister for transport and looking to spend taxpayer money on improving road safety, I would be looking at road crash statistics first and foremost, but as well I would take into account people's perceptions."
