Coroner repeats demand for urgent safety review on section of Mayo N5 roadway

The death last week of Tourmakeady woman Margaret (Peggy) Conway has cast a renewed focus on a stretch of the N5 near Swinford which is notorious due to the significant number of road traffic accidents that have occurred there involving death and serious injury over the past two decades, at least.

Mrs. Conway, a mother of five, died on Monday of last week after the car in which she was a passenger collided with another vehicle at the Cuilmore/Cloonlara junction with the N5 National road. She was laid to rest on Friday last.

Following this latest incident, the Coroner for the District of Mayo, Pat O’Connor, has repeated calls made by him and others over the years for action to make that section of the road safer.

In particular, Mr. O’Connor is concerned about the accident count over the past fifteen years along a 3 kilometre stretch from the intersection of the old Charlestown road with the N5 National Road at Culmore, westwards as far as Ballymiles.

Coroner O’Connor noted the “significant number of deaths and serious injuries” on that stretch of road.

He expressed disappointment that the recommendations of a road safety review that he advocated in 2020, following the death of Brian Bacon from Kilkelly, do not appear to have been acted upon.

The coroner had called on Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), in conjunction with Mayo County Council and An Garda Siochana, to carry out a full safety assessment of that section of the N5 road.

Although it is understood that representatives of the various bodies met and deliberated, his recommendations, to the knowledge of the coroner, have not been executed or acted upon.

Mr. O’Connor told The Connaught Telegraph: “There’s little point in coroners having the power, under the Coroners Act 1962-2020, to make recommendations of a general character that are designed to prevent further fatalities or are considered necessary or desirable in the interests of public health or safety, at an inquest, being sent to the relevant statutory bodies, if they are not acted upon.”

He continued: “There have been far too many accidents on that section of the N5 road over the past 20 years.”