Students demand action on road safety
The students, who collected 2,100 signatures, will shortly be advised by Cork Co Council engineers of proposals for improved road safety measures.
Schoolgirl Clodagh Murphy, 14, died on September 23, three days after she was hit by a car on her way to classes at Scoil Mhuire gan Smal in Blarney, Co Cork.
Just two weeks ago, one of her classmates was also struck by a car near the school, although he was lucky enough to receive relatively minor injuries.
Students decided that some action was necessary and went door-to-door in local housing estates to collect the petition which they have now handed to council officials.
Teacher Margo Hayes, who was also involved in an accident near the school, said that several of Scoil Mhuire gan Smal’s 400 pupils had to cross the busy road to Tower to walk to school or get on buses and there are no pedestrian crossings in the area.
“Five housing estates have sprung up along that road in recent years and traffic has increased. The road is supposed to have a 50km/h speed limit but a lot of cars go much faster on it. After Clodagh Murphy died the students were extremely upset and they took it upon themselves to do something about it. They collected the signatures themselves and I’m proud of them,” Ms Hayes said.
Just a few weeks before Clodagh’s death local residents raised road-safety fears with some politicians.
Cllr Gerry Kelly (FG) said that the petition had been received at a recent council meeting and engineers were to write to the students informing them of their plans.
“There are plans in the short-term and in the long-term to address the issue. Obviously the students were shocked by what happened to Clodagh and they have made a very good case,” Mr Kelly said.
It is understood that council engineers are proposing to build at least one pedestrian crossing along with increasing lighting and providing further footpath works along the road to Tower.
