‘We don’t want to see a child’s white coffin coming down the road’
RESIDENTS OF WOODLAWN ESTATE IN KIILLARNEY VOICE THEIR URGENT FEARS OVER ROAD SAFETY TO COUNCIL
‘WE don’t want to see a white coffin going down that road’ was the chilling warning from a group of Killarney residents over fears for the safety of the hundreds of children who attend school and an athletics club in an area hit by increasingly heavy traffic.
Woodlawn Residents Association members Terence McGough, Don O’Donoghue and Mary Burke petitioned the Killarney Municipal Authority on the matter last Wednesday as Mr McGough told councillors and council management in no uncertain terms about the dire need for immediate measures to slow cars passing through Woodlawn down.
The road is increasingly hit by cars anxious to avoid the frequently-congested centre of town, offering as it does a link between the Muckross and Cork roads.
Mr McGough said that residents are now ‘anxious to get either speed ramps or something else that would slow traffic down’ - due to the huge volume of children using the area on a daily basis, entering both the Killarney Athletics grounds on the Woodlawn Road and St Oliver’s National School on the adjoining Rookery Road.
“Two ramps were placed at the end of the [Ballycasheen Road]. They might as well have put sods of grass down as the cars are passing over them so quickly,” Mr McGough said.
Fine Gael County Councillor John Sheahan who facilitated the group’s appeal last Wednesday described speed in Woodlawn as a ‘very serious problem’.
“It’s putting people’s lives at risk everyday with the high volume of traffic travelling at mad speeds... I think we really have to step up to the plate here and provide this infrastructure because it’s the only thing that’s going to slow traffic down,” Cllr Sheahan said.
There was agreement across the board among his fellow councillors, many of whom had previously raised the issue at previous meetings.
Cllr Donal Grady said called for a pedestrian crossing, suggesting it could be funded frm councillors’ allocations.
Cllr Michael Gleeson said: “The volume of traffic is quite enormous, I’ve been down there on numerous occasions and seen children trying to cross the road to Ballycasheen National School and it is hugely dangerous.”
Cllr Maura Healy-Rae said people were using the Woodlawn Road as an effective ‘ bypass’ of the town, backing the call for a crossing.
Senior Executive Engineer Paul Neary had good news for the residents in so far as the council are now actively devising a solution to slow traffic down on the road.
When Mayor of Killarney Brendan Cronin - who called for a ‘ tabletop’ style crossing to be installed - pushed him on the timeframe, Mr Neary said he expected the Council would have a solution designed by the end of this month.
Mr Neary said that under usual procedure for such measures it could only be progressed subject to the approval of the wider public after a consultation process.