MOONE/TIMOLIN: 2 April 2001: by Brian Byrne. The bypass of Moone/Timolin has improved the road safety conditions within those two villages, but local residents are convinced there will be a major accident sooner or later at one of the exits off the bypass into the area.
They say that the road markings to guide northbound traffic into a right turn to enter Timolin or Moone are completely unsuitable given the traffic speed of 60mph on the bypass.
The ‘lead-in’ lane where turning traffic slows and waits for a clear road to cross into the villages is far too short, according to local businessman Sean Cleary, necessitating very sharp braking if the markings are followed as made.
“If you take your foot off the accelerator doing 50mph at the sign for Timolin or Moone and pull left into the marked lane you will still be doing 46mph when you reach the actual turn for Timolin,” he says. “The markings for the right turn from Carlow are such that you have to pull left along a long left-veering chevron ‘island’, or drive illegally on it, then turn right and await a traffic gap before turning right.”
Mr Cleary says there simply isn’t enough distance on the turning lane to stop without an excessively hard braking, and if the turning driver decides to slow from further back, he or she is slowing down the traffic behind them. The situation is made worse because the Carlow-end entrance to Moone is on the north side of a fairly blind hill section of road.
“If you drive a mile or so down the road to the High Cross Inn, the markings are different and quite safe,” he notes. “We asked for the same markings to be used here and were told the signs and markings are ‘in accordance with the Department of the Environment’s Traffic Sign Manual ... which is the current standard for road markings’.”
Mr Cleary says he is filing this response and intends to produce it at the first inquest of somebody killed at the junctions. And he pointed out that northbound bus drivers are refusing to drive into the villages because they say it is too dangerous to cross the road.
