Poignant project remembers road victims

THE 253 victims of the carnage on Irish roads so far this year have been remembered in a poignant, shock-provoking project involving dozens of young people and a massive collection of white-painted crosses.

The make-shift graveyard filled with white crosses, one for each of the 253 plus people who have died on Ireland’s roads since the start of the year, was set up by members of the Ballybeg Community Education Project on the edge of Waterford city yesterday afternoon.

Project organiser, Glenn Lynch, said the graveyard tribute was spurred by a front page of the Irish Examiner several months ago which featured the names and photographs of the first one hundred people who died on Irish roads.

“When we started out on this project, we had about 230 crosses. But as the carnage grew, so has the number of crosses we required. We even had a few extra here this morning, conscious that because it is a weekend, we would probably have more deaths on our roads.

“The project has taken months to get up and running. But it does not end here today. We now want to hear from other similar youth groups around the country and plan to distribute these crosses to them, one for each person in their county who has died on our roads.

“In setting up this project we decided to raise awareness by using a green space in our community to build a graveyard for a day.

“Every time we listen to the news we hear that 3 or 4 people have died, and after a while we just think about the numbers and not the individual people who have died.

“When we were talking in our club about all the people that have died, we were not able to imagine all the lives that have been lost. Today we can and everyone who has been out here today looking at our work can. If we could only save one life through this project, then it will all have been so, so worthwhile ,” he added.

The project involved Ballybeg’s homework and games club, as well as others from other projects in the close-knit parish.

“The reaction here this morning has been remarkable. It has really stuck a chord with people. We hope and we anticipate that it will make a difference.”