Wire barrier system to be reviewed
The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) said the policy, to use stretched wires as crash barriers, exposed its members to unnecessary risk.
Martin O’Driscoll, treasurer of the Cork branch of MAG, said the National Roads Authority was choosing the cheapest method without regard to the potential dangers.
“Motorcyclists call these cheese cutters because that’s what they are.
“It is actually not the wires themselves which cause the problems but the uprights which are exposed and, if they are crashed into, leave motorcyclists at risk of death or losing a limb.
“The NRA has used them on the 2+1 roads system where they are running right in the middle of the road, without any protection. Any motorcyclist will tell you they are scared of their life going along these stretches of road,” he said.
The commission has asked its European Committee for Standardisation to carry out a full safety review after Britain, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands banned the wire barriers.
NRA spokesman Sean O’Neill said it would be monitoring the outcome of the review but until then it will not change its policy.
“We are going to be fulfilling our current plans under the safety guidelines because these have not changed. All appropriate specifications remain the same.
“Barriers by nature mean it is difficult to say which form is safer than the other one,” he said.
Mr O’Driscoll said while it was likely the wire barriers would be banned, at the pace the NRA was installing them vast stretches of the road network will have these systems in place by then.
The debate about the barriers comes as it emerged the country’s improved road safety record came to a shuddering halt at the end of the summer.
In the last two months there was a 35% increase in the number of road deaths against the same period last year.
During this time 54 people were killed compared to 42 people in 2006.
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