Talk:Dukes Highway

gold escort route

There are signs along the route that identify historic points along the gold escort route from the Victorian goldfields to Adelaide, but I have been unable to discover why the gold was taken to Adelaide instead of Melbourne. Any ideas? --Scott Davis ^Talk 13:29, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

crashes

What value is there to the Major road accidents section? In particular, is there any evidence that collisions on this highway are different to other comparable roads, or external criteria on which particular incidents should be in a short list? --Scott Davis ^Talk 20:56, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

I've rewritten half of that section now, so it's not the same as when I asked the question last night. --Scott Davis ^Talk 02:08, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

1/3 of all SA fatalities??

To User:ScottDavis: I see you've re-added the sentence I deleted: "The Dukes highway accounts for one third of South Australia's road fatalities,". You've also re-added the reference. It may be due to the paywall, but that link comes up dead for me. It also sounds very unlikely - that would be about 30 fatalities per year on the Dukes' Highway, which frankly sounds unbelievable to me. Are you sure that (a) the link works (and if so, could you paste the text about the 1/3 statistic here), and (b) that the statistic is correct? Adpete (talk) 23:56, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

OK, I've found a non-paywalled ref at the ABC: [1]. By "major roads" it means just 5 highways, which had 85 deaths over the 5 years 2005-2009. "Over the five year period, 16 people died on Port Wakefield Road, 12 were killed on the Eyre Highway, while the Stuart and Sturt Highways each recorded 15 fatalities.". Subtract this total (16+12+15+15=58) from the total of 85, and that obviously means 27 deaths in 5 years on Dukes' Highway. Since the state total in those 5 years was 147+117+125+99+119 [2] = 607, that means Dukes' highway contributed 27/607 = 4.4%. Still sickeningly high, but not 1/3.

I think it's sufficient to say it's, statistically, the state's deadliest major road. Adpete (talk) 01:32, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

The relevant text of The Advertiser is:

The RAA raised the danger of driving on the highway in its motoring magazine last month.

RAA public affairs general manager Penny Gale said this stretch of highway accounted for a third of all the state's road fatalities.

"Head-on crashes are the main cause of fatalities, so duplicating the road would help reduce the road toll," she said.

— David Nankervis, Two killed after B-double and car collide head-on along Dukes Highway, The Advertiser, March 29, 2013 9:29pm

I think your reference is better, and gives better context to the 1/3rd claim

Almost a third of the 85 deaths on major roads in South Australia occurred on the Dukes Highway, despite comprising just 7 per cent of the state's highway network.

— ABC, Dukes Highway rated SA's deadliest, 20 Jan 2012

Thanks. --Scott Davis ^Talk 05:15, 9 January 2017 (UTC)