CLOSE to 7,000 signatures have been collected in a renewed push to improve safety at the Pacific Highway’s intersections with Bucketts Way and Medowie Road.
For petition organiser Leah Veksins, the next goal is 10,000, and she says the petition will remain open until that target is reached.
Speaking with News Of The Area on Saturday, Ms Veksins said she was determined to keep gathering support for changes at both intersections.
“Certainly am. I’m not giving up,” she said.
Ms Veksins described the campaign as the fourth petition seeking improvements, following earlier efforts by Rod Williams in 1995, 2005 and 2015.
Thirty years after the first of those petitions, she is asking more road users to add their names.
Her appeal is for a practical solution that makes the intersections safer for the people who use them.
While an overpass is among the changes she would like considered, Ms Veksins said she was also open to traffic lights or stop controls if they would improve the current situation.
“I want it to be better than what it is,” she said.
The campaign concerns two separate junctions: where Bucketts Way meets the Pacific Highway at Twelve Mile Creek, and where Medowie Road meets the highway.
The petition calls for safety upgrades and a redesign of both intersections, asking governments and road authorities to work together on a solution.
Ms Veksins, who lives and works in Stroud, previously told NOTA that two friends had been seriously injured in a crash at the Bucketts Way intersection.
That experience added a personal element to her long-standing concerns about the road.
Now, her focus is on reaching the signature target and keeping the campaign moving.
There is no fixed closing date, with Ms Veksins planning to continue collecting names until she has 10,000.
Paper copies have also been circulated through communities including Gloucester, Dungog, Clarence Town, Karuah, Tea Gardens, Hawks Nest and Medowie.
By Althea GUINSBERG
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