Judge brands motorway roundabouts as ‘lethal’

Traffic roundabouts on Dublin's M50 motorway have been described by a judge today as "absolutely lethal."

I don't know who designed them but getting from one lane into another is like playing Russian roulette Judge John O'Hagan

Judge John O'Hagan said in the Circuit Civil Court the Blanchardstown roundabout in particular was an incredible work of engineering and construction when one considered it also spanned a railway, a canal, a river and one of the main trunk waterways supplying Dublin.

"But in the way in which it is laid out it is in some instances absolutely lethal," he said.

Judge O'Hagan told Mr Paddy Hunt, counsel for a motorist whose car was rammed on the roundabout, that the court had great difficulty in concluding which driver was at fault in the accident.

Mr Kieran Dempsey, Slemish Road, Dublin, maintained he was in the middle lane and had been struck from the right by Mr Alan Power, Belmont Lawn, Stillorgan, Co Dublin, who maintained he was in the middle lane and had been struck from the left by Dempsey.

Judge O'Hagan said he preferred Mr Dempsey's account and granted him judgment for £13,490 for material damage and personal injuries against Power.