Judi Wade, 61, vividly remembers the moment she was in a fatal collision with a motorcycle on a popular stretch of road near the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney.
The collision happened about lunchtime on Saturday, July 22, on the picturesque but winding Old Pacific Highway.
It left Ms Wade scarred and recovering from a fractured spine, which has created crippling health issues.
“It’s been a lot of hard work doing physio to get back to a stage where I’m walking but I still live with chronic pain,” she said.
“I now have a disabled parking card on my car as a result of this.”
Ms Wade had been driving north from her home in Cowan to meet her husband in Brooklyn at the time.
The motorcycle rider, a 24-year-old man from the Central Coast, died at the scene.
No charges were laid over the incident.
It is one of the reasons why residents have called for an urgent review of safety measures along the road, amid concerns unsafe activity had increased in recent years.
Calls for more speed cameras
The road is popular with motorcyclists and tourists as it winds down from the Hawkesbury River to Cowan.
A recent survey of more than 130 residents showed more than 90 per cent felt intimated while travelling on the road, while nearly 80 per cent said they had experienced near misses.
A group campaigning for change at a local level said simple changes could make a difference, such as a reduction in the speed limit between Cowan and the Hawkesbury River from 80 kilometres per hour to 60kph.
The group also wants speed cameras put in place and a lane review conducted.
Local Diane Williams described it as an “unsanctioned racetrack” and urged people to drive safely over the busy holiday period.
“We’re not saying that we don’t want any motorcycles. We just don’t want the ones that are racing,” she said.
“If you want to have a cruise down to Brooklyn that’s awesome but make it a safe trip for everybody.”
Transport for New South Wales said speeding was the biggest contributor to crashes on roads around the state and contributed to about 40 per cent of road fatalities.
A spokesperson said it had met with concerned locals and was working to address the issue on the Old Pacific Highway.
“[We] will be installing new ‘no u-turn ‘ signs at Brooklyn Point early in the new year in direct response to this,” the spokesperson said.
They also said it was conducting a review of the speed limit along the road, with an outcome expected to be finalised in early 2024.
According to Transport for NSW, there had been 11 crashes since the start of 2023 along the eight-kilometre stretch between Cowan and the Hawkesbury River.
Those crashes had left one person dead, the 24-year-old motorcycle rider, and at least 17 others injured.
Rebuilding a life
Ms Wade said she has had to “rebuild” her life after the fatal accident, and there were “other people affected, like my family”.
“There wasn’t one life lost that day, there were two,” she said.
“Mine went, along with his.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck Australia in 2020, the national road toll has increased.
Some 352 people have died on roads in New South Wales this year, the state’s highest annual road toll for the past decade.
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