stopping lanes, at a cost of $24 million. 1997 – Third stage, extended 7km from Doncaster Road to Springvale Road, opened December 1997, at a cost of $250 million. The first and second stages were controversial and met much opposition due to the first being constructed through the middle of Yarra Bend Park and the second stage to Doncaster Road through parkland now named Koonung Creek Reserve. In recent years, amidst growing congestion problems and increased awareness of unsustainable methods of transport in Melbourne, there has been massive local council lobbying (by Melbourne, Yarra and Manningham) and public pressure placed on the State Government for the Doncaster railway line to be constructed. One last 5km extension to the Eastern Freeway, to terminate at the intersection of Maroondah Highway and Mount Dandenong Road via the eastern half of the Ringwood Bypass in Ringwood, was planned in October 2000: this would include tunnels 1.5km in length and a connection with the planned Scoresby Freeway (later EastLink), cost $326 million, and was scheduled for completion in mid-2005. Instead, the Scoresby Freeway and the planned Eastern Freeway extension was merged into the Eastlink project, and the remainder of the Eastern Freeway reservation was built into the western half of the Ringwood Bypass, which opened in July 2008. Eastlink connected the freeway to the Monash, Mornington Peninsula and Frankston Freeways. 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan Originally designated F-19 under the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan during its construction in the early 1970s, it was supposed to be linked to the then-new Tullamarine Freeway, as well as taking traffic off the Maroondah Highway. Protests from inner Melbourne suburbs residents led to it being terminated at Hoddle Street. April 2020 crash On 23 April 2020, a drunk truck driver, Mohinder Singh, crashed his truck into a Porsche 911 and two police cars. Four police officers in the police cars were killed. The driver of the Porsche, Richard Pusey, was also drunk and was later arrested for running away from the scene and for filming the dying police officers, later pleading guilty to three charges, and was jailed for 10 months. On 14 April 2021, truck driver Singh was sentenced to at least 22 years in prison by the Supreme Court of Victoria over the manslaughter of four police officers. Safety Despite the inherent danger in small and large vehicles travelling at high speeds, the freeway is generally considered one