Road fatality prompts calls for traffic calming measures in north Louth

Cllr Antóin Watters told members at the Dundalk Municipal District January meeting that since the road fatality that occurred on the Newry side of Omeath a number of weeks ago, quite a lot of residents in the area have made enquiries with him about traffic calming in that area.

Cllr Watters acknowledged that he knows that there is a process that is followed whenever a fatality happens on a roadway in Louth, but enquired how long that process takes and after that what happens.

He asked what the situation was with applying for low cost safety measures and questioned if he was right that in theory it could be a year before   an application would be sent made.

In response, Senior Executive Engineer, Paddy Connolly, said that traffic calming team have an annual application for low cost safety measures which takes place sometime in October, but he would pass on the query to the team for more information. 

Further in the January meeting, Cllr Watters told members present, that parents of children from the rural schools in the peninsula were in touch with him in relation to road safety measures at schools.

Cllr Watters asked if it was possible for the Council to put up some sort of beware of children cycling signs at the schools as not every school would be able to avail of safety measures funding, adding that it would only be two signs, one each side of the school.

Senior Exective Engineer, Paddy Connolly, said that he was not aware of any funding that might be available but they would have to look into it.