Three cars overturning in 24 hours prompts emergency repairs 

Cork County Council has carried out emergency repairs to part of a noted death-trap road, after three cars overturned in the space of 24 hours.

However, councillors are now calling on the National Roads Authority (NRA) to release funding to properly upgrade a reportedly dangerous section of the N72 (Mallow-Fermoy road) near the birthplace of Nano Nagle at Killavullen.

Following nearly 10 road deaths, over a couple of miles either side of Killavullen in the past decade, the NRA released money to upgrade and realign parts of the N72.

Two realignment projects were carried out, one to the east and one to the west of Killavullen, on sections of the road where most of the fatalities had occurred.

The projects were completed early last year.

But the three latest accidents occurred near Ballygriffen to the west of Killavullen, on a small section between the two realignments where the road was not upgraded.

Fortunately, the accidents resulted in minor injuries only and material damage, but council engineers were immediately sent to conduct an investigation.

A report delivered to members of the council’s Northern Division said it was obvious the section of road was “substandard and in need of being improved along the lines of the two adjacent schemes completed to date”. Council engineers said the current indications from the NRA were that funding for a significant improvement scheme in the area would not be available in the immediate future.

They said that in the meantime, the road was inspected and localised repairs were carried out on the worst part of its surface.

The council is preparing to overlay the section of road early next year and will also be putting up signs in the area warning motorists to slow down.

However, engineers said the optimum solution to correct the problem was to carry out a full realignment.

Councillor Kevin O’Keeffe (FF) said he was very concerned about the latest accidents.

His party colleague Cllr Frank O’Flynn agreed and got backing from other councillors to immediately write to the NRA seeking it to release urgent funding to fix the situation.

Since work was carried out on the other two sections, there have been no serious accidents reported. Councillors said it would be shameful if the middle section, where the cars overturned, was now not addressed.