"Lack of incidents" on 4 Longford junctions will make safety work funding "difficult," says council

A councillor who called for work to be carried out on the sightlines of 4 junctions in order to improve road safety has been told by Longford County Council that “the lack of incident/accident reports is likely to make sourcing funding for these and other similar sites difficult” as the Department of Transport is now insisting on such backup information for all Low-Cost Safety Scheme requests.   

Cllr David Cassidy sought the improvement works at the T-junction at Fardrumman, Ballinamuck where the L5035 - known as Charlie Sorohan/John Walsh's Lane -  meets the L1015, and where the L5037 - known as Jim Pat Lennon's Lane - meets the L1015.  

Cllr Cassidy (pictured) said he was seeking the work to be carried out as  drivers were having to pull out dangerously far onto the road to see oncoming traffic. The councillor also included in his motion the county bridge in Kiltycreevagh, Ballinamuck where he requested the improvement of sight lines approaching the bridge. 

In response to Cllr Cassidy, engineer David Coppinger said the sites would be added to the current list of Low-Cost Safety Schemes. He said an inspection of these sites had suggested that the sightline issues were mainly caused by overgrown trees and hedges, the resolution to which “might well be within the ability of the landowners.” 

He added, “The lack of incident/accident reports is likely to make sourcing funding for these and other similar sites difficult, as the DoT is now insisting on such backup information for all Low-Cost Safety Scheme requests. It was noted that this issue with a lack of incident/accident statistics is a national issue due to GDPR restriction on the distribution of potentially sensitive information and the resolution of this is currently being assessed at national level.” 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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