A local councillor has waned that a ‘serious accident’ is imminent at a busy Letterkenny junction unless preventative measures are put in place.
Councillor Dessie Shiels tabled a motion to this month’s meeting of the Letterkenny Municipal District regarding the situation at Oliver Plunkett Road, a busy intersection between Main Street and Pearse Road.,
Councillor Shiels, in his motion, highlighted the ‘ongoing practice of certain drivers turning off the Main Street and then immediately rapidly speeding up as they travel down Oliver Plunkett Road to the Pearse Road’.
“There is likely to be a serious accident too at the location,” said Councillor Shiels, who asked for physical speed restriction to be installed at the top of Oliver Plunkett Road.
He said: “The junction in question you can take a turn down towards Pearse Road and it’s quite a wide junction.
“You have the library, the Social Welfare Offices and a busy stop, among other commercial premises so it’s a very busy location,
“It would be known as a circuit of town, where people travel up the town through the Main Street and then take a left down hill. It’s a familiar activity.
“Cars are speeding down the road. It’s a very definite thing that’s happening. You can hear engines lifting and cars speeding up.”
In response, the Council said that there had been no records of accidents at the junction, but said that the Roads Department would consider the appropriateness or otherwise of an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing at the location.
The Council said: “Oliver Plunkett Road is urban and within the 50kph speed limit and extensive physical measures for the length of the road would cause other problems for large vehicles and emergency vehicles’.
Councillor Shiels said that ‘certain types of vehicles that are low to the ground would have difficulty speeding up if there was a ramp’.
Fergal Doherty, Area Manager Roads and Transportation, said it was common practice to ‘minimise’ ramps.
“If we put physical measures in place at every location there is speeding, the place would be covered in them,” he said.
Councillor Shiels added: “One speed bump wouldn’t be enough. It should be easy enough to put in two or three. You look at the likes of the Glencar Road and down towards the College, there are loads. They were needed and we have heard no difficulties.”