Articulated truck is latest victim of Thompsons Cross

Last February, Sabina Reddy wrote in a strong letter to Kildare County Council that Robert Thompson and his family 'are just waiting for an articulated lorry to clear the hedge (behind their house) some day'.

Well, last night, one nearly did, writes Brian Byrne. The now notorious Thompsons Cross claimed its latest traffic accident when a truckload of lamb failed to negotiate the junction, and ended halfway up the bank on which that hedge is located.



Ironically, it happened also only hours after local FG Dail candidate Cllr Martin Heydon had once more raised the matter of the cross at the Athy Area Committee meeting of Kildare County Council. Without getting any satisfaction.

Fortunately last night, once again, there was no serious injury involved. But again it seems that a fatality or several are all that will jerk the Council and the National Roads Authority into taking proper action.

"It is six months ago since local gardai said it is only a matter of time before there's a fatality here," Cllr Hayden said at the scene last night. "Are we going to have to wait until that happens before we see decisive action?"

He added that yesterday morning's response was that 'a meeting is being organised' and that an update will be available for the next area meeting in five weeks' time.

"That's not acceptable," he said bluntly last night. "We need action and we need it now."

Last March, on KFM radio, presenter Clem Ryan described the situation at the junction as 'daft, daft, daft' and said there's going to be 'a major smash' at the location, which he passes every day.

Up to that time, there had been six accidents alone there since September, including one in which the motorist had written off his car. But Cllr Heydon said then that when he had raised the matter with the National Roads Design Office, his concerns had fallen 'on deaf ears'.

In May, after a number of other incidents, local resident Sabina Reddy wrote again to the Council saying that not enough had been done to warn oncoming drivers of the junction. She suggested the ideal solution would be a roundabout, but that was turned down by Council official Michael O'Leary, who said it 'would do little to improve the situation'.



In June the Council put down warning 'rumble strips' on the old Carlow Road section of the junction.

However, residents and Cllr Heydon want significantly more warning signs about the upcoming T-junction on that road.