Road Safety in Dublin 15

The following letter was published in the "Community Voice" newspaper.

Road Safety in Dublin 15


Dear Editor,

I would like to use your widely read media to highlight growing concerns on the safety of roads in residential areas within Mulhuddart Constituency. I also wish to use this medium as another effort at drawing the attention of relevant authorities to this dire issue.

As a candidate in the upcoming local elections, I have been conducting door-to-door canvassing aimed at familiarising myself with fellow residents and fostering a shared understanding of common problems in our community with a view to a more effective representation. During my dialogues with local residents, one commonly recurring theme has been dissatisfaction with the safety provisions in the design and construction of roads in newly developed residential areas including Hazelbury, Linnetsfield, Latchford, Allendale, Phibstown, Ravenswood and Beechfield. Residents in these estates complained about inadequate (and sometimes misleading) road signage and markings, lack of speed calming measures, and insufficient pedestrian crossings. On one occasion, I had the dreadful experience of witnessing an accident in which a child was knocked down, fortunately with only minor injuries sustained. In a similar incident in Tyrresllstown, also in my constituency, a car recently mounted the kerb at a bus stop, crashing through it. Even more fortunately, on this occasion no one was harmed as the bus stop was empty.

Last year, following an independent assessment of the state public amenities in my constituency, I came to the conclusion that some of our roads are not safe enough. In this regard, I wrote a letter to Fingal Co Council highlighting this issue, though with particular reference to Tyrresllstown at that time. Furthermore, on my invitation the then Chief Superintendent John Toomey along with Superintendent John Harnet came and were conducted round the estate to have a first hand view of the situation. Following the visit, they promised to seek the relevant road safety audits from Fingal County Council and to follow up on the progress to ensure that the matter was looked into. I had also voiced this issue of road safety on several occasions at the periodic ‘Ethnic Garda Meetings’ where the Council and the Local Garda are represented. Unfortunately, all these efforts have yielded little in terms gaining the attention of relevant authorities.

It would be sad if we have to wait until an innocent life is lost before this issue is addressed. It is surprising that the Council allowed these developers to open up roads such as this to the public in the first place. It is hoped that these errors will provide a useful lesson that will ensure roads of this quality are not constructed in the future, and that no more estates will be built without a comprehensive plan on road safety. I call on the Co Council to urgently intervene with the introduction of speed calming measures such as ramps and speed limits as well as appropriate road signage on these roads.

Many thanks.

Ignatius (Iggy) Okafor
Tyrrellstown, Dublin 15
info@iggyokafor.com