Crashes “not uncommon”

THE Inner-Relief Road/Church Hill junction is not a high collision location, despite there being three crashes there in the last twelve months.

That’s according to Senior Executive Engineer with Sligo County Council Brian Flynn. He was responding to a motion put down by Councillor Chris MacManus asking for improvements to be made at the junction to make it safer and reduce the number of collisions there.

“There was an accident there over the Christmas where substantial damage was done,” said Cllr MacManus. “This was the third incident in the last 12 months. I’ve witnessed cars coming out from the Summerhill Roundabout and when they see the lights changed from green to amber they put the foot down,” he told the January meeting of Sligo Municipal District last Monday.

“I saw an articulated lorry breaking the lights. Residents are very concerned. Anything coming from the town side are moving at a much slower pace. Is there anything you can do in the form of signage or timing of the lights?” he asked Council officials.

He was supported by Cllr Tom MacSharry who said it was a “particularly dangerous junction” and it was only through “God’s grace” there hadn’t been a fatality there.

Mr Flynn said that notwithstanding the recent collision at the junction, it didn’t “present as a high collision location”. He said his records showed that most collisions there were classified as “material damage collisions” resulting mainly from rear end collisions, which were “not uncommon” at traffic lights.

He said the extent of damage done to the railings “would suggest that excessive speeds may have been a contributory factor in this collision.” The speed limit is 50kph at that junction. Mr Flynn said the Roads Department would keep the junction under review and if crashes became more severe “a thorough junction review would be undertaken.”