Three people killed in a two-vehicle crash on Coppins Crossing Road in Canberra's west yesterday have been identified as Bangladeshi tourists.
A red Toyota hatchback and white Toyota van collided on the road just south of Hazel Hawke Avenue in Canberra's west about 2:45pm on Sunday.
A 61-year-old man, 54-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man from Bangladesh were pronounced dead at the scene.
Both drivers are in hospital, with the driver of the car in a critical condition.
The "jaws of life" had to be used to remove all four adults from the car.
Yesterday's deaths take the ACT's road toll to 17 for the year and come just one week after two teenage girls were killed on the Monaro Highway in Hume.
A 38-year-old woman was also killed in a head-on crash on the Barton Highway between Yass and Murrumbateman last week, and just two weeks ago a 17-year-old driver died in a two-vehicle accident on the Kings Highway near Bungendore.
While police are still investigating the cause of the Coppins Crossing crash, Detective Superintendent Mick Calatzis is urging all drivers to slow down.
"It's an ongoing investigation, we won't speculate at this stage, but lower speeds mean people are safer on the roads," he said.
"It's just common sense, slow down. One or two minutes to get there later won't hurt anybody. You need to come home alive to your families."
Police are asking any witnesses or anyone who has dashcam footage of the accident to contact Crime Stoppers.
Residents raise safety concerns over 'narrow little goat track'
Bill Gemmell from the Weston Creek Community Council said residents had been raising safety concerns about Coppins Crossing for more than a decade.
"The point which the collision occurred at, the signage is ambiguous, it's pretty much a construction track being used almost as an arterial road," he said.
"It's the main link road really between Woden, Weston Creek, Molonglo, through to the western parts of Belconnen, it's got some substantial traffic.
"It goes from quite a wide two-lane road [John Gorton Drive] down to a narrow, single-lane each way road [Coppins Crossing Road] very quickly and it's on the downhill."
Work to make the road a dual carriageway and construct a new bridge over Coppins Crossing is due to start next year.
And while local residents are pleased the improvements are being made, Mr Gemmell says it took more than 10 years of campaigning before the ACT and federal governments committed to the project.
"This is a bigger issue with Canberra and when we develop large areas of land, we don't put the infrastructure in before people move in," he said.
"There's more than 10,000 people living in the Molonglo Valley now, you've got 20,000 in Weston Creek, you've got the Belconnen growth as well.
"But the employment centres are in Tuggeranong and Civic and Belconnen, and you've got this narrow little goat track."
In a written statement, an ACT government spokesperson said tenders for the project were currently being assessed and that the project was on track for completion in 2025.
"The completion date remains unchanged from when the project was first announced," the spokesperson said.
Parliamentary inquiry into dangerous driving
The Weston Creek Community Council is also one of a number of local groups that has put in a submission to the ACT government's parliamentary inquiry into dangerous driving.
Mr Gemmell says a permanent police presence is desperately needed in the Weston Creek and Molonglo Valley areas.
"People are telling us that they don't feel safe driving, walking around the community because the dangerous drivers have got some sort of primacy in the hierarchy at the moment and the balance needs to twist the other way," he said.
"It's broader than the current spate of fatalities. It's about people feeling safe, safe to walk across the road, go for a walk, wander around their neighbourhood, to let their kids go out on their own to ride their bikes to the park."
He says the group wants to see changes to vehicle licensing and more vehicle confiscations, with proceeds from the sale of seized cars going to a victim support scheme.
The Justice and Community Safety committee will begin public hearings for the inquiry on October 26.
