Madam, - In response to the horrific road accidents at the weekend, Mr Noel Brett, the chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, is quoted as saying we should all take personal responsibility for our own actions on the roads.
May I respectfully suggest that Mr Brett should also take reproducibility for his own authority's failings?
As a regular user of the road between Ballineen and Dunmanway, I can say the accident at Manch, Co Cork, was bound to happen. Aalmost two-mile stretch of perfectly straight road is followed by a sharp right bend. On the outside of the bend there many substantial trees so close to each other and also to the road that, if a driver is unfortunate enough to leave the road at that point, it is virtually impossible to miss them. Excessive speed would not necessarily be the cause of leaving the road; an oil slick or ice could also be the reason. Common sense suggested that safety barriers should be installed.
Not 30 miles away, near Halfway, three young Polish men were killed about 15 months ago. This stretch of country road has still not been marked with the appropriate lines to indicate either the edge or the centre of the road. Maybe it will take another three deaths before some action is taken.
If Cork County Council is short of funds, maybe Fingal County Council could lend it some. Fingal seems to have money to burn, as it wastes incredible sums of money installing chicanes and road traffic islands. The unlit traffic island on the Swords to Malahide orad is the site of another accident waiting to happen. - Yours, etc,
ROGER WORMALD, The Golf Links, Malahide, Co Dublin.