Laois man traumatised by frequent accidents outside his home

A LAOIS man has been left feeling ‘extremely anxious’ following a series of accidents on the road near his house.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous out of concern for his family, is based on the Tankardstown-Barrowhouse road. His house is located near the brow of a hill that has seen frequent car accidents.

In the last nine months, two cars have crashed into his home. The most recent incident, which occurred on 13 February, saw a vehicle strike a pole up the road from his house before ploughing through a hedge and into his garden. The force of the crash sent bricks into his house.

“Thankfully, my youngest children, aged nine and ten, were at a party at the time,” he says. They would normally be outside playing.

“I said to the woman who had the accident ‘there's no one hurt, that’s the main thing’.” The man’s concerns were not alleviated following a previous accident last summer.

“My kids were out in the yard. I was in the shed and I didn't know what happened. All I heard was a massive bang.” Thankfully, his children were okay.

However, this incident has sparked anxiety. “From then on, I haven't been right,” he says. He is losing sleep at night as he fears accidents will continue to happen unless action is taken.

His wife has also experienced anxiety, as she has previously lost relatives in a traffic accident.

The man says the issue is speeding on the road. Last year, the speed limit was reduced on this stretch of road from 80km to 60km. However, this has done little to curb accidents.

He believes the solution is to reinstall a speed van that was present in the area.

“The speed van was removed three months ago,” he says. “Its absence is noted and the speeding has continued.” Cllr Aisling Moran (Ind) raised the issue previously at the Graiguecullen/Portarlington municipal district meeting.

“I asked for a speed van to go into that location, but they put the speed van down about kilometre away,” she says.

According to Cllr Moran, the council put the speed van in a location where the speed zones changed. She says the van caught a driver doing a maximum speed of 185 on the road.

Cllr Moran says the issue is not the road itself, which is well maintained, but rather the speed of vehicles.

“I've been trying to get them to put more signage on the road, change the part of the road to a red tar … putting ramps there, markings on the road, ramps or something that will totally slow down the traffic just as they're going past the houses.” The man remains skeptical of road signage, saying it does not work. He says the speed van needs to return to its previous location, and a crash barrier installed when cars come to the bend on the road.

He does not blame the people who have had accidents near his home. “If the roads were controlled properly, this wouldn't have happened,” he says.

Now, whenever a member of his family leaves for college or work, he opens the gate and directs them out onto the road after inspecting it. He will not let his younger children cycle to school.

“I'm actually frightened,” he says.

Cllr Moran will meet with an engineer next week to investigate the issue.