Narrow escape for walkers on Cork street after car flips onto roof
The car was being driven towards the city when it appears it made contact with a parked car and flipped onto its roof, coming to a rest on the footpath on the southern side of Blarney St.
A shocking near miss on a narrow Cork City street has prompted calls for urgent safety works or a one-way system trial to save lives.
Residents and business owners at the city end of Blarney St pleaded with City Hall to act fast after pedestrians cheated death in the car flip incident.
Visual artist Ciara Rodgers, who lives on the street, said she was within seconds of being struck by the car, which flipped onto its roof and landed on a footpath at about 7.30pm on Monday.
“If I had left my house a few minutes earlier, I would have been crushed and there were a few more people walking in the area earlier too. Thank God there was nobody on the footpath on that side of the road when this happened,” she told on Cork’s 96fm.
Blarney St runs from the grotto at the junction of Shanakiel Rd and the Blarney Rd, in the west, to its junction with Shandon St in the city centre.
The incident occurred close to City View Wheels, which has been run by Patrick Murray and his two brothers at the same location since 1982.
The car was being driven towards the city when it appears it made contact with a parked car and flipped onto its roof, coming to a rest on the footpath on the southern side of the street. Witnesses said speed did not appear to be a factor in the incident. The driver walked away shocked but uninjured.
Mr Murray said this latest incident proves the time has come for change on the street.
“We’re 40 years in business on the street and it’s the same now as it was 40 years ago but traffic volumes and the type of car using the street have changed a lot,” he said.
“Where before, you would see a Fiesta or another smaller car dropping off children to schools in the area, now you see Tucsons or other substantially-sized cars — they’re 50% bigger than the cars of a decade or so ago.
"When people see a break ahead of them, they put the boot down and make a dash to get to the other end, and that’s where a lot of the trouble is coming from.
“I would love if someone from City Hall would come up here and spend just half an hour on the street with us. People here have been very lucky so far but the time has come for change.”Â
He suggested the trial of a one-way system using Blarney St and Sunday’s Well as a looped-route — using one of the streets as an inbound route and the other outbound.
Ms Rodgers described the car flip incident as “absolutely frightening” and said she and her partner have emailed city councillors since moving into a house on the street about a year ago asking for safety works on the road.
“It does need to be one way — there are always traffic jams and people getting stuck,” she said.
Cork City Council has been asked to comment.
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