Coastal ward councillor Simon Illingworth said coastal roads in the south-west were “an embarrassment to all levels of government” and head-on collisions were becoming more regular.

“Road improvements, upgrades, signage and divided highways have played a part in stopping these crashes elsewhere. Where's our road cash? Don't we matter?” Cr Illingworth said.

“Never has there been such a stark contrast in infrastructure between safe political seats and marginal ones.” 

Six people were injured and three airlifted to hospital following a four-vehicle crash on the Great Ocean Road at Glenaire on Saturday. Cr Illingworth said such crashes were becoming more regular.

He called on the state and federal governments to work together on safety upgrades and improving roads that link the Great Ocean Road and Princes Highway.

“The road experts in Melbourne must think the tourists drive up and back from Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road, why else would you not fix the 50 kilometres of inland goat track that the tourist buses use when they cut from the Twelve Apostles back to the Princes Highway?” he said.

Cr Illingworth said local residents were bracing for a “mega crash” in the area.

“Today I drove my kids to school on one of the worst connector roads in Australia. It has a 20-metre section of road that has subsided about 50 centimetres. It stretches from one side of the road to the other and still comes as a surprise even when you know it’s there. That sinkhole has had at least one birthday,” he said.

“Then there's the collapsed part of the same road. Right at a place aptly called Devils Gully. That collapsed a few hours before the school bus was to drive over it. There's no way of sugar coating it, a bus would roll twenty times down the gully.”

VicRoads chief John Merritt toured the Great Ocean Road region last week as part of an engagement process into upgrade works.

Feedback can be submitted at engage.vicroads.vic.gov.au