'One of these days someone will get seriously injured, if not killed,' Cork councillor warns of dangerous bend

A CORK city councillor has called on the council to extend a crash barrier at what he described as a “dangerous bend” along a busy road on the northside of the city.

Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins has urged the local authority to develop the barrier at the end of Fairfield Avenue behind Circle K garage “to prevent vehicles crashing through the wall at the dangerous bend”.

“It’s a very, very busy road. Rush hour is just hectic there and it’s on a bus route as well,” he said.

“It’s a serious bend, a dog-leg to the right where you have heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling both up and down the hill to access industrial estates like Churchfield Industrial Estate and Apple,” Mr Collins told The Echo.

“It’s very worrying. This is an ongoing issue with cars, vans coming down and losing control.

“One of these days someone will get seriously injured, if not killed.”

Mr Collins said the wall beyond the barrier was recently damaged after a vehicle crashed into it.

He is calling for the barrier to urgently be extended where the road travels down to the right onto Commons Road.

The northwest ward councillor also said signage should be erected on Fairfield Avenue alerting drivers to the sharp bend at the bottom of the hill.

Mr Collins said he also believes that the road, situated in a residential area, is unsuitable for HGV traffic.

Earlier this week he said two trucks got stuck trying to pass each other on the road and said occurrences such as this highlight the need for the progression of the Cork City Northern Transport Project.

Mr Collins raised the issue of the crash barrier at a local area committee meeting in February.

“This will be surveyed and considered for upgrade in conjunction with the traffic/infrastructure department subject to funding being available,” the director of services in the council’s roads and environment operations directorate David Joyce told Mr Collins.