Road, not drugs, took family

[Frank]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 21,00.html


GOSFORD City Council's failure to maintain their roads caused the deaths of Adam Holt and his family, not drugs, an inquest has found.

NSW Deputy-Coroner Paul MacMahon delivered his findings this afternoon after a lengthy inquest into the fatal road collapse.

Mr Holt, 30, Ms Bragg, 29 and their two daughters Jasmine, 3, and Madison, 2, as well as Ms Bragg’s nephew Travis Bragg, 9, died when a section of the Old Pacific Highway collapsed beneath them during the ferocious storm on June 8 last year.

At the time, the RTA blamed roads for the disaster.

Mr MacMahon ruled out alcohol and cannabis as a cause of the crash.

"Alcohol and cannabis played no part in his death and that of Roslyn and the children,” Mr MacMahon said.

"It is quirte clear that the deaths were unfortunate but completely unnessesary….and if the appropriate services had been provided by Gosford City Council they would not have occurred.”

The inquest heard how the couple’s silver Ford Falcon plunged into a collapsed culvert at Somersby on the Central Coast, and their bodies were swept into the raging floodwaters of Piles Creek.

During the inquest, Mr MacMahon investigated the gradual deterioration of the roadway, and the potential negligence by the agencies responsible for its maintenance.

The role of the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) and Gosford City Council in building and maintaining the road was closely examined.

Counsel assisting Mr MacMahon and lawyers for the Holt and Bragg families, Paul Menzies QC, said incompetence, neglect and indifference from both bodies had led to the collapse.

Had the council or the RTA acted on the advice from its own experts, the road would not have failed and claimed five lives, Mr Menzies said.

Mr Menzies said it was recommended since the 1970s that steel pipes under roadways should be reinforced with concrete to prevent them from rusting and weakening, but that maintenance was not done at the Somersby site.

A toxicology report tendered during the inquest revealed the driver of the car, believed to be Mr Holt, had a blood alcohol reading above the legal limit.

The report also showed Mr Holt had traces of marijuana in his system.

Police forensic pharmacologist Judith Perl told the inquest the combination of alcohol and marijuana would have slowed reaction times on the road when they approached the culvert.

It will be interesting to see what if anything comes from this in regards to the condition of some of the roads, and the liability of councils to maintain the roads in it's area. As anyone who has ever had the car damaged or dropped their bike due to the condition of the road, the RTA and council play pass the buck, if someone is now held responsible for the condition and up keep of these roads it may mean we will have better roads in the future, maybe!

[Shifty]

The problem is some poor monkey will get sent to jail and processes and procedures really won't change.