Main Roads report reveals driver fault as key reason for accidents at notorious Lake Grace intersection

A Main Roads report has revealed driver fault as the primary cause of hundreds of near misses and accidents at a notoriously dangerous intersection in the Wheatbelt.

The Shire of Lake Grace, in collaboration with Main Roads WA, compiled a report regarding the Stubbs Street and Kulin Lake Grace Road intersection in Lake Grace, in response to major safety concerns.

Shire president Len Armstrong, chief executive Alan George and infrastructure services manager Phil Burgess met with Main Roads WA representatives on February 19 to discuss the intersection.

The report revealed that a near miss camera recorded 634 incidents of vehicles failing to come to a complete stop — an average of 11 per day — between June 27 and August 21, 2025.

The report stated “ongoing issues relate to driver behaviour, especially non-compliance with stop signs on the north and south approach to the intersection”.

Cr Armstrong said during the report’s investigation, he, alongside staff from the shire and Main Roads, stood at the intersection wearing high-vis.

They witnessed drivers look at them while continuing to roll through the stop sign.

In the most recent accident on the morning of February 15, eight people were lucky to escape without serious injury when two vehicles collided at the intersection, causing one to flip on its side.

Cr Armstrong said that the T-bone collision in mid-February was due to a driver sailing through the stop sign.

He said one of the biggest recent near misses involved a driver not obeying the stop sign, and missing a truck carrying a tanker full of fuel by centimetres.

“If that had been an accident and the tanker had rolled over, that would be diabolical,” he said.

“From my perspective, and others that have stood around watching drivers, it is a driver behaviour thing.

“They roll up to the stop sign and keep on rolling, they don’t come to a dead stop.

“And lots of people say ‘oh that’s because it’s locals and they’re used to the stop sign’, but it’s not, 50 per cent of all our vehicles that go through are out-of-towners.

“They’re inattentive as our locals, for some unknown reason, and that’s the reason we have accidents.”

In March 2023, Roe MLA Peter Rundle brought the intersection to the attention of Transport Minister Rita Saffioti in Parliament, calling for immediate remediation works.

“Locals report near misses on a weekly basis at this site — (it) has a reputation as a potentially fatal crash site due to insufficient and substandard road safety treatments,” Mr Rundle said in Parliament.

“Locals agree it is merely a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’ a fatality unfolds if the intersection is not rectified.”

The intersection underwent a major safety upgrade in May 2023 as a result.

About $200,000 was invested in safety improvements including re-asphalting the intersection, installing large stop signs, rumble strips, advanced warning signs alerting drivers to stop signs ahead, repainting line markings and widening stop holding lines.

Despite these upgrades, the intersection continued to cause grievances for those travelling through Lake Grace.

Cr Armstrong said the intersection had caused concern for “forever and a day”, and that during his 20 years on council, they have “tried everything”.

“I can safely assure you every scenario, every question that you can possibly think of has been raised and answered, we’ve tried everything,” he said.

“The message doesn’t seem to get through.”

He said every three months, Mr George puts a note in his CEO newsletter reminding drivers to stop at the stop signs.

“Vision up and down the road is good, we’ve got more than enough stop signs, too many stop signs coming from the north we believe, we’ve got rumble strips, the list goes on,” he said.

So you just wonder why people can’t do what the directions say and stop; stop and have a decent look

The report suggested safety improvements, including installing coloured asphalt treatment on both north and south approaches about 100-150m long and advance flashing stop sign the same distance south of existing stop signs.

Thermoplastic “STOP” pavement markings at the holding lines, construction of a median island at the approach to support installation of a new stop sign and extending raised reflective pavement markers further south along the southern approach were also suggested.

Cr Armstrong said that the shire can only do a certain amount and cannot keep putting up signs and stationing police at the intersection.

“To everyone that travels through the intersection, locals or out of towners, visitors, interstate or overseas, they need to adhere to the signage — it says stop,” he said.

“If everyone did the right thing by the signage, it wouldn’t be an accident or near miss.”