RESIDENTS WANT SPEED RAMPS AFTER FRIGHTENING INCIDENT WITH CAR
WITNESSES LEFT TRAUMATISED BY HIGH-PROFILE INCIDENT INVOLVING A SERIOUS CRASH
RESIDENTS of Bellefield Springs have renewed their calls for speed ramps to be installed inside the estate following a high-profile incident recently which saw a car, allegedly travelling at high speed, crash into another parked car and into the front wall of a house, causing major damage.
Initially, gardaí received a call to the incident which stated that a car had ploughed into a group of pedestrians at the estate on a sunny Friday afternoon, sparking a huge emergency services response which included several garda cars, including armed response, fire brigades and ambulances. What actually happened was somewhat different however.
‘ The man in question drove erratically at high speed through the estate whilst nearly knocking his family down,’ one eyewitness said. ‘He crashed into a parked vehicle at such force that it caused the parked vehicle to go through the front corner of a house near the back of the estate.’
The driver of the car then behaved in an incredibly aggressive manner towards fellow residents before being taken away by ambulance. With children out playing the sunshine on the day in question, residents have said that its incredibly lucky nobody was seriously hurt.
‘It’s simply a miracle that nobody was killed,’ the witness said.
‘However, those who saw, or merely came upon the event are left traumatised and upset.’
The owner of the house in question is now left waiting for someone to inspect the significant damage to the front of their home, while the car that was parked in the driveway has been completely destroyed.
The incident has resulted in residents from the estate renewing their calls for speed ramps to be installed, calls that they have been making for years.
Resident Martin Doyle, who has been campaigning for the ramps for years, says that seeing cars travelling at high speed in the estate is nothing new.
‘Cars can reach crazy speeds coming up that straight as you come into the estate,’ he said. ‘We’re only waiting for something to happen or for a child to be killed. There’s a lot of vans parked outside houses and if a child steps out behind a van to go across the road to play on the grass, there’s no way these cars would stop in time.’
Mr Doyle says that he has approached the council on several occasions about the situation and has seen no progress made. He even took it upon himself to obtain a quote to install four speed ramps in the estate, which came to just over €4,000 with signage, while he says that council officials informed him this would cost in excess of €20,000.
‘ This is happening every night here,’ said Mr Doyle. ‘You actually wouldn’t believe the speeds the cars do passing by here. We just know that something will happen sooner or later and somebody could be killed. We shouldn’t have to be living like this.’
Mr Doyle added that while the speeding within the estate has been reported to gardaí, he believes that the only thing that can stop incidents of speeding is the installation of ramps.