Illawarra Mercury
Large trucks and their path through Wollongong became the burning community issue exactly 30 years ago after a string of deaths on Mt Ousley.
Fast forward from May 1979 to May 2009 and the same issue still sparks strong debate.
The State Government is only days away - at the most weeks - from determining a proposal to remove restrictions on road deliveries to the Port Kembla Coal Terminal.
Terminal management cites the use of different routes, road upgrades and improvements to vehicles as justification for removal of the curfew to allow coal trucks to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week - which would allow 10 million tonnes of coal to be delivered each year, up from 5.2 million tonnes.
Back in May 1979, the city was still talking about a coal truck that lost its brakes and hit four vehicles on Mt Ousley the month before.
Then on May 15, Paul Jones, of Thirroul, died after an accident involving a coal truck.
Later that week, on May 18, came an accident few people around at the time will ever forget: five members of the Moore family died - mum Dorothy and children Julianne, Lynette, Stephen and Gregory - on Mt Ousley after a runaway semi-trailer hit them and caused their car to roll down a gully.
It prompted the Mercury to label the mountain Death Road, and led to safety measures including the raised median strip and lower speed limits. Keiraville resident Keith Tognetti, who lived down the road from where the car rolled, was the first on the scene of the Moore accident. He still lives there.
"I was in my study and I heard this terrible sound, like a jet plane had landed on Mt Ousley," he told the Mercury.
"I raced up and I was first on the scene - there were cars all over the place.
"I glanced down at the gully and I saw the mother and kids in their car - they were all dead.
"It was a real nightmare thing."
Mr Tognetti and wife Irene are opponents of the present plan to extend the hours of coal trucks through the city.
There were 113 public submissions objecting to the plan after its public exhibition, of 122 submitted.
University of Wollongong academic Philip Laird, also an opponent, believes a public inquiry should be held into the proposal.
"It may be argued that history does not matter," he said.
"On the other hand, good regulators are duty bound to ensure that Wollongong residents and visitors to the city do not have to be subjected to excessive road safety risks, noise, air pollution and other loss of amenity that they've had in the past."
Coal terminal spokespeople argue the removal of the curfew - it can only receive coal by road between 7am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday - will result in a more constant spread of coal trucks on the region's roads, with minimal noise and pollution impacts.
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| Exactly 30 years ago, an out-of-control truck struck the Moore family's car on Mt Ousley Rd. | |
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