Traffic wardens directed traffic in Carrick-on-Suir after accident as no gardai in town

Traffic wardens had to direct traffic following a recent traffic accident in Carrick-on-Suir town centre because there were no gardaí in the town at the time it happened, a councillor told the monthly meeting of Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District’s councillors.

Cllr David Dunne said he spoke to a traffic warden who along with a colleague had to intervene and divert traffic after an elderly woman pedestrian was knocked down as there was no gardaí in the town. The accident occurred on the morning of Friday, July 21 and the woman, aged in her 70s, was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The Sinn Féin councillor called on council management to introduce the emergency plan for Carrick-on-Suir as soon as possible in the wake of this accident and because of the ongoing threat of flooding in his low lying hometown.

Carrick Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr Kieran Bourke described Cllr Dunne’s account of lack of garda personnel in the town at the time of that accident as “shocking” and declared it didn’t surprise him.

The councillor has made campaigning for more gardaí to be assigned to his hometown his top priority during his term as Cathaoirleach and he told the meeting there are four gardaí and two sergeants stationed in Carrick-on-Suir at the moment compared to 16 gardaí previously.

He declared the shortage of gardaí was a “national crisis” and accused the Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner of having their heads in the sand.

In relation to the town’s proposed emergency plan, he reminded council management that they had been promised this plan a number of years ago after councillors rejected two reports carried out on the 2015 flood in Carrick.

He said they needed this plan to know who contact in the case of a flood or other emergency or the location of consignments of sandbags.

District Administrator Marie O’Gorman reiterated that the Flood Alleviation team that is meeting regularly in the district, is preparing a plan at the moment.

She and others members of that team had no difficulty taking phone calls from him about emergencies.

Ms O’Gorman assured Cllr Bourke there are people on call and on duty at weekends When she arrived to work on Mondays, there were emails in her account showing reports of emergencies that occurred over the weekend and invariably they had been dealt with.