Dangerous junction described as 'daft'

KFM's morning show presenter Clem Ryan described the situation at Thompson's Cross as 'daft, daft, daft' this morning and warned that a major accident there is inevitable unless the matter is sorted out.

He was discussing the issue with Cllr Martin Heydon, who raised it at yesterday's Athy Electoral Area meeting in Kildare County Council. The councillor noted that there have been five accidents at the junction since September, and when he had raised with the National Roads Design Office one in which a driver had written off his car, he said his concerned 'fell on deaf ears'.

Clem Ryan, who passes the junction every day, noted that as late as yesterday he had seen 'another near miss'. "I'm not an engineer, but I am a road user," he said. "And if I was face to face with the design person, I'd say the same thing as I am now, it is daft, daft, daft, and there is going to be a major smash there."

Cllr Heydon said that, with other local councillors, he had attended a meeting they had requested with the NRDO, and that a number of worrying items had resulted from that meeting.

"In particular, there has been no safety audit completed on the junction," he said. "The NRDO also said that there is no requirement for further delineation work or public lighting and that there was no contact with Gardaí re accidents’ at this same site." (See the councillor's full statement in the previous post.)

A month ago, your editor highlighted the situation in an article in the Kildare Nationalist, which is reproduced below.

KILCULLEN RESIDENTS RAISE FEARS OF FATALITIES AT JUNCTION

by Brian Byrne.

Angry local residents are calling for a petition to be raised in protest at what is turning out to be a very dangerous new road junction near Old Kilcullen.

The junction at Thompson's Cross links the old N9 Carlow Road to the Athy Road, and was built as part of the works for the new length of M9 motorway recently opened between Kilcullen and Castledermot.

Since it was constructed there have been numerous accidents, the latest just last week when a car was written off after overshooting the junction and crashing into a ditch across the Athy Road.

Residents want the intersection changed, preferably with a roundabout, which they say will make it much safer for all concerned.

Local FG councillor Martin Heydon is backing them in their efforts and has already raised the matter with the Council's Roads Department. However, he has been told that the matter is the responsibility of the National Roads Authority.

Sabina Reddy, who lives nearby, has written a strong letter of complaint to the Council, in which she says the junction leaves motorists 'like Bosco swinging his head in all directions' trying to see what traffic is coming.

"Not for the first time, someone drove straight across the Athy road and into the ditch just over the hedge from Robert Thompson's house," she said in regard to one recent accident. "I guess himself and his family are just waiting for an articulated lorry to clear the hedge some day."

And Maureen O'Neill, who also lives in the area, asks if it will 'take a fatality' before anything is done.

The residents claim that the crossing is very badly signposted and there are no road markings on the Athy road to indicate a junction, or when turning left from the Athy road coming out of Kilcullen.

"At night time it is extremely difficult to see exactly when to turn left when driving from Kilcullen," says Sabina Reddy. "All other roads off main roads have green reflector cones to see but this one does not. Last Friday week a van drove up from the Sunnyhill Road and straight into a car that was travelling into Kilcullen from the Athy direction. The van did not stop. These are two incidents where on both roads that join the Athy road the vehicles did not stop."

There are also complaints that the junction is 'lethal' for anyone walking or cycling because there is no continuous hard shoulder on the new turn. "I know budgets are tight but safety must come first and it will not be long before someone is killed," Sabina Reddy has told the Council. "This area is very popular with walkers and at the moment it is not walker or cyclist friendly."

The new road is also very wide, and traffic coming from the Carlow direction is not inclined to slow down when coming up to the Athy Road, where traffic has priority. There is also an issue with visibility of oncoming traffic from the Athy direction.

Cllr Martin Heydon notes that there is no lighting on the junction since the temporary ones during construction were taken away. "There are no reflector posts to indicate the junction when driving on the main Athy road. I also have been approached by a number of drivers who have came upon this junction without realising it and nearly overshot it."

Finally, there seems to be an inconsistency in giving the Athy Road (R418 on the NRA's map of the junction) precedence at this point, as the Castledermot/Carlow Road (R448 on the map) continues on into Kilcullen. Putting the stop sign on the Athy Road would both make more sense, and solve much of the problem. But that would also necessitate a new alignment of the junction to 'soften' the resulting bend on the R448.