Dundalk's Butler calls for more proactive approach to road safety

Cllr Marianne Butler has called on Louth County Council to "stop waiting for people to get hurt, or property to be damaged, before deciding to implement road safety measures" and to use all available information when deciding on road safety measures.

In a statement from Cllr Butler, she said that since last year the Council has decided to only conduct road traffic counts, which measure the number of vehicles and their speed on a specific road, based on information on past accidents. Prior to this, councillors, residents, and other stakeholders could request the Council to conduct traffic counts, and these requests were considered on a case-by case basis.

Cllr Butler has pointed out however, that as highlighted in a recent Prime Time programme, councils have not received accident data from the Road Safety Authority since 2020, due to data protection issues.

The Green Party councillor has tabled a motion for the Louth County Council May meeting, asking the Council to use all available information when deciding on whether road safety measures are needed for a particular street or road.

Cllr Butler explained to the Dundalk Democrat that, "the process to decide if traffic calming is needed usually starts with a traffic count, the information from this count is evaluated and if a significant number of vehicles are found to be speeding, then the council knows that traffic calming measures such as ramps are required at that location”. 

Cllr Butler’s motion calls on Louth County Council to consider other factors such as road design, information from the local Fire Service and An Garda Síochána, who are often called to attend the scenes of road traffic accidents, and local knowledge from both residents and elected representatives when deciding to conduct traffic counts.

“Work is on-going at national level to fix the data protection issues but even then it doesn’t make sense to wait for people to get hurt before taking action” she commented.

“So many local residents are asking for traffic calming measures in their estates, road and streets, we must take on board their valid road safety concerns and ask that they be included for future traffic counts”. 

Councillor Butler’s motion will be on the agenda of the May meeting of council and she is calling on her fellow councillors to support her motion and take this step in improving road safety in Louth.