The comment asked “When in the last 23 years has there been a rock fall? Just wondering.”
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It was left on the Mercury’s Facebook page this week on a story about the second stage of rockfall fencing installation along Bulli Pass.
![While Colin Bird and Suzanne Latham were driving up Bulli Pass in 2015, a boulder smashed through their windscreen. The incident highlights the importance of the rockfall fencing being installed. Picture: Kirk Gilmour While Colin Bird and Suzanne Latham were driving up Bulli Pass in 2015, a boulder smashed through their windscreen. The incident highlights the importance of the rockfall fencing being installed. Picture: Kirk Gilmour](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/dc5syd-6j5xr6a36tw1ht5ns2rb.jpg/r0_0_5152_3180_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
While it was the only comment of its kind on this story, it echoes similar comments left on other stories about the closure.
Even before the yellow barriers went up blocking the top of Bulli Pass the first time around in October last year, there were objections about the closure.
People grumbled about the inconvenience, about how it might take them a bit longer to get to work each day.
And, yes, it is an inconvenience to have to get up a bit earlier for work and for it to take a bit longer to get home each evening.
But, for some people, it’s worthwhile offering a reminder of exactly why the fencing is being installed along Bulli Pass.
Because you don’t have to go back 23 years to find a rockfall on Bulli Pass. You just need to go back to 2015.
In that year Colin Bird and Suzanne Latham were driving up Bulli Pass on their way to work, when a large boulder crashed through the windscreen of their Land Rover.
The boulder, measuring around 30 by 20 by 10 centimetres left a gaping hole in the windscreen and ended up in Mr Bird's lap.
“It wasn't like a normal accident where you think you're going to hit something and can prepare,” he said at the time.
“The car just exploded. It literally sounded like something exploded.
“The steering wheel was smashed into pieces by the rock. Even though I was steering, I don't actually know if I had control or not.”
Not being able to see through the shattered window, he had to use what was left of the steering wheel to avoid hitting oncoming traffic or driving over the edge of the pass.
Their car was a write-off and Mr Bird ended up in hospital with a fractured vertebrae, cracked rib and internal bleeding.
Ms Latham had to contend with whiplash and numerous cuts and grazes from flying shards of windshield glass.
With the work on Bulli Pass almost finished, with the inconvenience of it almost over, the story of what happened that morning in January 2015 is exactly why it all had to be done.
To make sure no one else has to deal with a boulder smashing through their windshield.