Safety fears grow over ‘dangerous’ Cavengarden junction - Donegal Daily

Calls have been made for fresh action at a blind corner of the Cavengarden crossroads on the N15 road outside Ballyshannon.The concerns surround visibility, sch...

Calls have been made for fresh action at a blind corner of the Cavengarden crossroads on the N15 road outside Ballyshannon.

The concerns surround visibility, school buses and increasing traffic to and from the Rossnowlagh and Cashelard areas.

Councillor Michael McMahon raised the issue through a motion at the September meeting of the Municipal District of Donegal, saying concerns about the dangerous junction had been raised for years.

Cllr McMahon said the “stream of cars and HGVs going up and down the road is a cause for concern”, particularly with an increasing population in Rossnowlagh and Cashelard and children travelling to school.

He called for discussions with Bus Éireann and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to explore what could be done.

Cllr McMahon said motorists emerging from the junction face visibility difficulties.

“What has been suggested to me is the problem is with the corner coming out. You are blind with the house on that right-hand side,” he said.

He asked whether discussions could take place with an adjoining landowner about acquiring “a few metres of his grassland field” to help create more space at the junction.

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Calling for all of the relevant bodies to work together, Cllr McMahon warned: “It would be too late if somebody gets injured.”

Councillor Noel Jordan supported the motion and said he had recently experienced the difficulty at the junction himself.

“You have to pull out a certain distance past the wall to the right to get a vision line,” he said.

He suggested that widening the junction could potentially provide an escape lane for buses.

“It’s all about the safety of the road users. It is a dangerous junction, maybe it should be assessed again,” Cllr Jordan said.

In a written response to the motion, Roads and Transportation Area Manager Mark Sweeney confirmed that "the Area Roads Office has already carried out a Road Safety Assessment on this junction and have submitted this assessment to Central Technical Services for the Road Safety Engineer to review."

Mr Sweeney said that if the review determines safety improvements are required, the extent of any works would then have to be discussed and agreed with TII, as they would likely affect the National Primary Road.

He also cautioned that funding for road safety schemes is limited and that priority is generally given to locations with a cluster of reported collisions.

The written response stated: “This data shows that there has been one accident/collision at this junction in the last eight years.”

The executive is now awaiting the outcome of the assessment, to determine if the Road Safety Engineer will advise whether or not a safety scheme is going to be progressed at this location.

During the meeting, Mr Sweeney also said a low cost accident scheme had previously been considered for the junction, but difficulties arose over the land required.

He said the proposal had involved moving the junction closer towards Ballyshannon to improve visibility and create a better sweep around the corner.