Orange family narrowly avoids tragedy as Mitchell Highway stretch labeled 'roller-coaster'

On the morning of January 4, Denise Hutchison was driving from Orange to Mudgee with her husband and son to compete in a motorsport event.

Experienced country drivers, they were taking the Mitchell Highway cautiously when they suddenly started to lose control just before the Molong Creek Bridge, around 24 kilometres north of Orange.

"We came down the hill and round the corner and the section of road literally resembles a roller-coaster," she recalled.

"We hit it, the back of our trailer started to fishtail. We thought we had it under control but there's a section of road which literally launched us up.

"The left-hand of the trailer then slammed into the side of the bridge. The force of that blew the tire off the rim, snapped our suspension and made the trailer come unhitched.

"The pressure of that then forced us to jackknife and the trailer smashed into the right rear panel of the ute, swung us around as if we were travelling back to Orange and the force of the trailer was just pushing us.

"If the bridge wasn't sturdy we would have gone over the edge."

While grateful no one was hurt, Ms Hutchison told the Daily a sign should have been placed to warn drivers about the dangerous state of the road.

Since the incident, Cabonne Council has placed a warning sign before the bridge which allows traffic to pass over the Molong Creek.

"If there was a sign we would have slowed down. We travel all over NSW, we are fully aware of the roads and obey the conditions," she continued.

"My car was totaled and we had to push the trailer off the road but while we were doing that this cattle truck came around and nearly had a head-on collision with another car that it couldn't see.

"It was a very scary experience.

"If it was busier and a smaller car was coming we would have killed them. If there was a truck coming then me and my son would be dead.

"My son nearly got hit by a car, cars were swerving. There are parts of cars everywhere out there, clearly we are not the first ones."

Mr Donato said Ms Hutchison's experience was representative of the conditions around the region and called on the government to increase road repair funding.

"This is something I've been raising now for a number of months, the poor conditions of roads," he told the Daily.

"We are talking a main arterial road, not some back street.

"The government ultimately have a duty of care to make sure roads are safe. Clearly they have been neglectful."

Last week Premier Dominic Perrottet was in Molong to announce a $500 million funding package for roads across the state.

Mr Donato said the announcement was welcome but that more needed to be done, a sentiment echoed by Forbes Mayor Phyllis Miller.

"The $500 million is welcome. It's obviously a start but nowhere near enough," he said.

"Make no mistake, if it hadn't been for me raising this issue over predominantly Cargo Road we wouldn't be seeing money allocated to these roads. They need to be safe for road users."

Cabonne Council said any Mitchell Highway roadworks would be carried out by the state government but confirmed they had already applied for some of the $500 million available in funding to repair its extensive road network.

The Minister for Regional Roads and Transport Sam Farraway has been contacted for comment.

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