Cork council urged to install mirrors at dangerous junctions in bid to cut collisions

Local authorities in Ireland do not have a policy on use of mirrors as a road safety measure, even though they are commonly used by householders, businesses and farmers at dangerous entrances to their properties, councillors told

Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue listed a number of potentially lethal junctions in the North Cork area which would benefit from having such a safety measure, especially at ones where there is poor vision for motorists accessing from side roads onto main roads. File picture

Erecting mirrors at dangerous junctions in a bid to cut the number of crashes on public roads is to be considered by a special committee of Cork County Council — in what would be a first for a local authority in this country.

Local authorities in Britain and Europe regularly install mirrors to improve road safety, but they are not erected in this country by councils, even though they are commonly used by householders, businesses and farmers at dangerous entrances to their properties.

The council’s roads and transportation special purposes committee is to discuss the matter after it was raised by Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue.

He listed a number of potentially lethal junctions in the North Cork area which would benefit from having such a safety measure, especially at ones where there is poor vision for motorists accessing from side roads onto main roads.

Mr O’Donoghue said he had received a number of representations from constituents about the council installing mirrors. However, when he contacted a local council engineer, he was told the local authority did not currently have a policy on their use.

He contacted a number of private companies which supply such mirrors, and was told they regularly supply them to councils all over Britain and Europe.

“I think it’s a relatively inexpensive measure and will considerably increase road safety,” Mr O’Donoghue said.

Independent councillor William O’Leary, who is chairman of the council’s Northern Division, said the county council needs to get to grip with the issue and adopt a proper policy on their roll-out.

He proposed that the council’s roads and transportation special purposes committee be asked to seriously look at creating guidelines for their implementation, and this was agreed by councillors.

Labour councillor Ronan Sheehan said any measure to improve road safety had to be adopted by the council, adding he could not understand why the local authority was not doing it when many householders and companies were. 

“They do work,” he added.

Northern Division manager Niall Healy said road safety standards set at “a national level” [by the Department of Transport] currently did not provide measures for local authorities to deploy mirrors and said he suspected this might be due to “liability issues.” 

He said the council was aware a number of private individuals had put them up at the entrance to their properties and the county council has no objection to that.

He said Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which is in charge of national primary and secondary roads, did not have any guidelines on their use either.

However, Mr Healy said it would be worth looking into Mr O’Donoghue’s request, and it was certainly “worthy” of a debate.

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“It makes absolutely no sense to me that this wasn’t considered before [by the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland]. This needs to be taken very seriously,” Mr O’Donoghue added.