'I'll be killed' Laois grandmother lives in fear at busy road junction
Cars regularly landing in garden of pensioner pleading for safety road works
A Laois pensioner whose front garden has been hit by multiple traffic crashes, says she is in fear of being killed.
The grandmother's home faces a busy junction, where the Portarlington road meets the old Dublin Road, between Ballybrittas and Monasterevin.
Cars have flipped over and crashed onto her lawn on more than one occasion, she told the Leinster Express / Laois Live, sharing these dramatic photographs.
The smashed hedge of the lady's house from the crash.
"Another car went in just past my house, into a drain, and another into a field.
"I'll be killed. I'm afraid crossing the road. When my family come to see me, my grandchildren play in the front garden.
"The junction is on my doorstep, I could easily be hit.
"When I am driving to my house and slow down to cross over the road, cars are not stopping behind me.
"My late husband was hit years ago, before the motorway was built. It got quiet after the motorway was built but now it's as bad as ever. The speed limit on the main road is 100km per hour. It used to be 60km. The traffic to and from Portarlington has got so busy.
A Garda standing in the woman's garden next to a flipped car.
She contacted a local councillor for help.
She said that Fine Gael Cllr PJ Kelly, brought out a council engineer to view the issue, but it was to no avail.
"They told me that Laois County Council has no money to do it, that's a very poor response," the pensioner said.
Cllr Kelly had raised the issue during 2023 in a motion to the Graiguecullen Portarlington Municipal District.
He said there are maybe 20 gaps in the hedge of the lady's house from cars crashing into it.
“The latest one was where a car was coming from Ballybrittas village and coming out the long pass and turning left. There were two young ladies in a car and all of a sudden, to them, a car appeared on their left hand side and they got a huge fright,” he explained.
“They got startled and they ended up in a lady's garden on the far side of the road,” said Cllr Kelly.
He asked “that Laois County Council consult with the Department of Transport to investigate the possibility of positioning a roundabout at the junction known as Killenure Cross – several times during the day four lanes of traffic could be side by side at the junction resulting in accidents taking place especially as the speed limit is 100 km on this stretch of road.”
In a written response, Senior Executive Engineer, Road Design Office, James Dowling had stated that “Laois County Council Road Design Dept. will carry out a traffic survey and turning movement county to assess the need for future improvements at the intersection of the R420 and R445.”