Barfold resident Maggie Supple is calling on her local council to take action to prevent a serious car accident on her road.
Maggie had a close call while driving home recently when she veered to avoid a deep pothole and her car fell into a hidden concrete culvert.
Maggie lives on Mill Road, a narrow and unsealed road that is graded by Mount Alexander Shire Council about once a year.
The road regularly develops large potholes but Maggie had never noticed the culvert before as a marker post that was supposed to be upright to mark the spot had long before fallen into the ditch below.
“I just slightly veered to the left, the next minute there was this bang and crash and the car was thrown around a fair bit,” she said.
“The culvert is too short for the road and people in smaller cars than mine might roll their car if they hit it and suffer serious injuries,” she said.
“It’s quite dangerous, I’d never really noticed it until I went over the edge of it.
“If a small car went over that, it could quite easily flip over.”
Fortunately for Maggie, she drives a large and heavy Verada station wagon that only suffered a blown tyre and fractured petrol tank.
After the incident her neighbour re-erected the marker post and filled in the worst potholes but Maggie has asked the council to do something more before someone ends up in the ditch.
“They need to extend the culvert by at least a couple of feet either side,” she said.
“There’s no lip on it that people would hit first, the road is level with the concrete.”
A council spokesperson said a team member had gone out to inspect the road.
“Like many country roads, Mill Road is narrow and unsealed. We have recently filled potholes along the road and there are guideposts along the side of the road near culverts to warn motorists to exercise care,” the spokesperson said.
