Dad calls meeting after near misses at Kyle Cross

A FATHER-OF-FIVE who has had a number of frightening near misses on the junction at Kyle Cross has called a public meeting, with the aim of petitioning for a roundabout to be installed at the junction.

Darren Kenny, from Crossabeg, believes that the new road layout at the busy junction has made driving conditions worse than before it was upgraded.

On a number of occasions, while waiting in the turning lane to take a right turn to Crossabeg, he has been met by traffic coming from the Oylegate direction, who veer into the lane to go around traffic turning left in the direction of Crossabeg.

Mr Kenny explained that on the most recent occasion, his wife Tanya and their five-yearold daughter were in the car with him, when a southbound car pulled out to go around a vehicle in front of it and missed Mr Kenny’s car by little more than a foot.

‘My heart was in my mouth, I thought they weren’t going to stop. I flashed the lights at them and blew the horn but they just drove on as if I wasn’t there. There was no acknowledgement, like a hand up or anything to say

‘sorry’. That was the fourth time it’s happened to me.’

Mr Kenny said on the previous occasions, he had a full car – four of his children are under the age of 12. He said that while he hadn’t heard of anyone else having the same experience, he did know of local people who found it very difficult to pull out from either of the secondary routes onto the main road given the speed of traffic on it. He has contacted local councillors and TDs, the Department of Transport and the National Roads Authority.

‘I want to try and address this before it’s too late. Someone is going to be killed on that junction the way it is now. I believe a roundabout is the only thing that would alleviate the problem.’

Earlier this year, considerable work was carried out on the junction including resurfacing and restructuring the road layout. Slipways for left-turning traffic on both sides of the road were removed with the intention being that traffic turning left off the main road would decrease the speed of vehicles coming behind them.

The roadworks lasted for approximately 12 weeks and the project was funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

This Wednesday will see the commencement of 13 weeks of Pavement Scheme works on the road from Ferrycarrig to Kyle.

SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE KILLED ON THAT JUNCTION. I BELIEVE A ROUNDABOUT IS THE ONLY SOLUTION