‘Not enough accidents’ to act on deadly junctions

Two deadly junctions on the main N84 cannot be made safer – because there aren’t enough recorded accidents at these locations.

And the lack of a sufficient ‘accident history’ means that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which is responsible for the national roads network, won’t carry out improvements.

This is despite the fact that a senior Council engineer made representations about the two junctions to TII recommending their upgrade.

Locals trying to access the N84 at the Balrobuck and Grange junctions have been complaining about how dangerous they are, and that visibility is restricted.

Galway County Council Senior Engineer Fedhlim McGillycuddy met TII representatives on upgrading these junctions – but it was decided that funding would not be provided for improvement works based on an insufficient accident history at both locations.

Cllr Andrew Reddington thanked the Council official for making strong representations – but said he could not understand why an application for funding was turned down.

“Ask anyone living in these areas trying to access the N84 on a daily basis about the difficulty and dangers there are at these junctions and particularly with the speed of the traffic along the main road,” he said.

“It is almost as if TII are looking for more accidents to take place before they will do anything about these junctions which seems bizarre in itself.

“They should be implementing improvement works that will prevent serious accidents or fatalities at these locations instead of waiting on statistics or sufficient numbers before they will fund anything,” Cllr Reddington added.

Last summer, a motorist was rushed to University Hospital Galway following a road traffic collision that occurred on the N84 at Grange, Corrandulla.

Two vehicles collided at the junction on the road, as one vehicle veered off course and hit a third vehicle. The incident occurred in the late evening and emergency services attended the scene and the driver of one of the cars, a male, is still recovering from his injuries.

It is understood that many of the minor tips that occur at these junctions go unreported and are sorted out between the individual motorists.

However, Mr McGillycuddy has not ruled out making another funding application to TII for these junctions as he believes that they require upgrading.

The Headford area councillor said that the stretch from Ballindooley near Galway City to Clonboo was particularly dangerous which made these two junctions even more lethal.