Road defects 'leading to deaths'

An average of 10 people per annum are killed in collisions where the primary cause is ascribed to defects in the roads.

That is despite a decade of multi-billion euro investment in road building, new procedures in relation to signage and road works, and €12.5m spent on safety training for local authority road workers.

Chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) Noel Brett said “road factors” were responsible for an average of 10 deaths a year. He said issues with roads acted as “a primary contributing factor” in the deaths of 12 people in 2008, and eight people in 2009.

Mr Brett said while Garda investigations were now “up there with best practice” he believed the “adversarial” nature of inquiries were time consuming and led to lengthy delays in establishing the cause of crashes.

Referring to a crash near Quigley’s Point near Buncrana Co Donegal in 2005 in which five young people lost their lives, Mr Brett said it took five years to establish that the young people were “innocent” and responsibility for the crash lay with another vehicle.

Mr Brett told members of the Oireachtas Transport Committee yesterday that consideration should be given to a new form of inquiry, aimed at establishing causes, without the need to wait for the adversarial process to go through the courts.

Chief executive of the National Roads Authority (NRA) Fred Barry said many national roads still “do not come close to meeting current design and construction standards”.

He said that while new motorways would rate highly in safety terms, much of the national road network would not.

Principal Officer at the Department of Transport, Dominic Mullaney, said road safety was “not compromised by a lack of safety works”, but agreed if more funds were available that there were “lots of schemes that could be done”.

He said since 2002 local authorities had spent €12.5m training road workers in safety issues.

Assistant Garda Commissioner John Twomey said the latest forensic practices were now used in crash scene investigations by gardaí trained to City and Guilds standards.

He said Garda resources have also been considerably strengthened over the last decade with a 1,200 strong Garda Traffic Corps now in place.

All speakers extended their sympathies to members of the Gallagher family of Achill, Co Mayo; the Farrens from Carndonagh, Co Donegal; and the Keane family of Ballylongford, Co Kerry, who attended the Oireachtas Transport Committee discussion on Road safety yesterday.

The families claim road conditions were responsible for the deaths.

Mr Mullaney agreed to a suggestion from Labour transport spokesman Joe Costello that the department organise “another meeting” with the Gallagher, Farren and Keane families, to discuss their concerns.

The Health and Safety Authority has already found unfinished local authority road works with inadequate signage were putting drivers at risk and the families have taken their concerns to the European Parliament, as well as attending the Transport Committee last year.