FALLEN…tree which was cleared off the Sligo to Enniskillen road, near Mullaghdun by local residents. (Cloud Nine photography)
AS A result of bad weather residents in the Mullaghdun area had to take action during the weekend after a tree had fallen across the main Enniskillen to Sligo Road.
Thomas Maguire who lives on the A4 noticed a tree was tilting dangerously and close to falling onto the main road during stormy weather on Sunday evening. Afraid that it would cause a serious accident, Thomas along with friends and neighbours from the Mullaghdun community went onto the road in high visibility jackets to warn traffic.
He said, “It’s only by the grace of God that the tree didn’t fall on any vehicle or motorist.”
With an ‘S’ shape on the road, fears were that vehicles travelling fast wouldn’t notice the tree which was ajar over the road. The tree was held up by telegraph poles and despite reporting it to TransportNI Thomas said nobody came to help.
On Monday (November 30) the tree fell onto the road, which once again sparked the residents into action to clear the way by cutting the tree themselves and directing traffic.
Thomas said, “We do not know why they didn’t come out to us – It wasn’t good enough that we had to do this ourselves. It was dark, that was reason to at least put lights up to warn motorists. Everyone of us working on that were putting ourselves at risk.”
TransportNI confirmed that they received a call to inspect a tree in the Mullaghdun area on Sunday evening (November 29). An on-call team visited the site that night and deemed that it was not presenting a hazard to road user. As a result there was no requirement to close the road.
A TransportNI spokesperson explained why they did not cut the tree themselves, “The tree was on private land and as such it is the landowner who is responsible for it. It was established that the landowner lives in England, so in the interests of public safety TransportNI inspected the site again around 8am on Monday morning (30 November). There was no change in the situation and winds had eased. TransportNI was not informed that the tree had fallen and it may be the case that it was felled on behalf of the landowner.
“TransportNI would take this opportunity to remind landowner of their responsibility to regularly check any trees on their land to ensure that they do not pose a danger to road users.”
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