THERE have been calls for urgent upgrades to the Derrylin Road, following a horrific road crash at the weekend that claimed two lives.
On Friday night, two men died in a collision between a Ford Kuga car and a Bus Eireann coach at the junction with the Tiravally Road.
Police are continuing to investigate the crash, and while its cause is yet to be determined, residents in the area said they have been calling for action on the A509/Derrylin Road for many years
Several residents have told the ‘Herald they believe the road’s deteriorating condition and dangerous junctions are putting drivers at risk.
They said decades of limited maintenance and poor signage have made the main Donegal-to-Dublin route increasingly hazardous, prompting petitions and repeated appeals to authorities for action.
Local councillor Declan McArdle voiced growing concerns about traffic, poorly maintained junctions and a lack of response from authorities. He said residents deserve a road that allows them to travel safely each day.
“The road is a disgrace, it is like a Third World road. It hasn’t been updated, it hasn’t been lined,” Cllr McArdle told the ‘Herald.
“When you leave the house in the morning, everybody deserves to get home.
“The road needs maintaining and looked after, it hasn’t been touched in years.”
Cllr McArdle added that despite sending petitions to Stormont and the DfI in Omagh, which included numerous signatures, he has received no response.
Tom McNulty has lived along the road since 1974 and said its traffic has quadrupled since he has been there.
“I find it a very very dangerous road, I have had a few close shavings myself,” he said.
“I think there should definitely be a speed limit at that junction where the shop is. There is a bridge that blocks the view from the oncoming traffic from Derrylin and when you come out from the shop, it is very hard to see round the bridge.”
He added, “I think coming up to that cross, you take your life in your hands.
“If you are coming from Florencecourt, Lisbellaw, Enniskillen or Derrylin, we all meet at a junction, nobody knows who has the right of way. I would suggest that they put a roundabout on that.”
Gerry Rasdale, who lives beside McCorrys shop and runs holiday accommodation, said visitors are shocked that the roads remain in the same poor condition after more than thirty years.
“The whole spade work is done at least 15 years ago when they started these roads originally,” he said.
Mr Rasdale added, “We live beside the shop and if you go down there to the junction, you would not get out on that road and the speed that they are traveling at past a built up area with four junctions off it.
“There is absolutely no safety whatsoever. There is no signage, there are no road signs, signs are covered with bushes, it is a disaster waiting to happen.
Another frustrated resident Andrew Maguire said the road was in urgent need of improvement.
“The condition is bad and the maintenance of it is non existent, that includes the sides the hedgerows,” he said.
“We had land taken off us to do that bit of straightening and improvement 18 years ago and there has been one bit of work done to it since but otherwise nothing.
“The surface is poor, the vision seeing cars coming at speed, the hedgerows and the grass along the edge are not maintained.
“It needs to be straightened, the surface needs to be improved and the pathway which has been outlined by the stone verges, that is the route that the road is supposed to be taken.”
