John’s true grit keeps his business on the road

MEET the man who’s showing true grit to break the grip of the big freeze.

John O’Donovan, who owns John O’Donovan Haulage, based in Blarney, Co Cork, has bought his own gritter to literally keep his business on the road.

As temperatures plunged over the Christmas period, the village was effectively cut off for several days by treacherous road conditions.

At one stage, an ambulance had difficulty responding to an emergency call in the area because of the number of abandoned cars on one road out of the village.

Mr O’Donovan, who has up to seven trucks on the road at any one time, said he has never seen freezing road conditions as bad as this for as long as this. He said he had to take steps to safeguard his business.

“We’re based in a remote country area about two miles from the motorway. You can’t expect the local authority to grit every road,” he said.

So he bought his own gritting machine which he attaches like a trailer to his four-wheel-drive jeep.

“From where we’re based in Coolowen, it’s about a mile and a half, or two miles to the motorway. You just drive on with the gritter. It’s grand if you’re in second gear and the four-wheel-drive is on. The whole thing becomes rigid. It’s as easy as having a cup of tea,” he said.

He has been on almost 24-hour standby over the last 10 days and grits as the need arises to ensure his trucks can operate safely.

But he has also been called upon to help neighbours who have been stranded by icy roads.

He called for a greater community effort in response to the big freeze and urged businesses in rural areas where gritting does not occur to get involved.

“There are a lot of businesses in these areas that could get involved and it would spread and reduce the cost to any one individual,” he said.

He has spent up to €1,000 in the last week or so on the thousands of pounds of salt that he has spread, sometimes up to twice daily, on the road between his business and the motorway. He began planning for the operation several weeks ago and stockpiled vast quantities of salt.

And while local authority supplies of grit and salt ran dangerously low, Mr O’Donovan said he has more than enough to keep him going for another week or so.