A number of families have come together to seek explanations for the loss of loved ones who died in incidents involving unsafe surfaces and signs, writes Kitty Holland.
Sinead McDaid (22), a "lovely, steady, sensible girl", was on her way to deliver a birthday card to her mother-in-law on a bright June evening seven years ago when her car left the road. The car had hit loose chippings at the straight stretch of road between Culdaff and Carndonagh, not far from the Donegal/Derry border, where Donegal County Council had been carrying out resurfacing work earlier that day.
Her Renault Clio skidded on the chippings, went down an embankment and landed on its roof in an adjacent field. A witness said she was travelling at about 35 miles per hour. Warning of the hazardous surface was delivered on her route approaching Culdaff by just one sign, almost hidden in long grass.
Sinead was brought by ambulance, accompanied by her mother Magdalene, to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry and died there later that evening.
Her father, Seán Farren, a builder, was on his way to Dublin when he got a phone call telling of Sinead's accident.
"I was in Aughnacloy [ Co Tyrone] when my brother phoned me from Cork to say she had been in a bad accident. I turned right back around," he says. "My wife called then to say she was in the ambulance with her. She told me she was dying, and she's done nursing so she knew. She was dying in her arms. I just kept on driving and my brother called again and asked me to pull over. I knew as soon as he said that. I don't even remember driving on after that. I was completely in shock. I went straight to Altnagelvin and we had to call Rodney [ Sinead's husband] and tell him to come in. We just said she'd a broken leg because we were afraid he'd have an accident driving in otherwise, and oh Lord, he was roaring and screaming in the hospital. They were only married a year, you know, and were due to move into their new house on the Friday. She never even got to live in her new house."
ON THE NIGHT of the accident, says Farren, he asked his brother-in-law to go back to the scene of the accident. "He said when he got there the road was being swept and new signs were being put up. Alarm bells didn't go off, though, until the funeral, when an ex-Garda said to me that if those chippings weren't there, or if there had been signs telling drivers to go only 20 miles per hour, Sinead wouldn't have lost control of the car."
Her family have always believed that, had the council's road engineers placed adequate signs about the state of the road, Sinead might still be alive. In his deposition at Sinead's inquest in 2003, Garda Daniel Devlin, who came by chance on the scene, said: "I noted there were a lot of loose chippings on the road . . . I think loose chippings were a factor in the incident."
That inquest, at the Coroner's Court for Londonderry and North Tyrone, found the cause of Sinead's death to have been a "road collision", though Farren contends the true circumstances of his daughter's death remain unknown and he hopes to have her inquest reopened.
The Farrens are one of a number of families who have come together in the last six months to form Fort (Families Of Road Tragedies). They believe people they lost died as a result of the condition of the roads managed by county councils - whether due to unsafe surfaces or inadequate signage.
The families are also waiting anxiously for a judgment from the High Court, due in early February, which could have enormous implications for their desire to see local authorities answer questions about their possible culpability in their loved ones' deaths.
The Health and Safety Authority's case against Cork County Council is being seen as a "test" case in their dealings with eight county councils which are challenging its authority to force them to improve their safety management of roadworks.
The cases arise following the issuing of "improvement notices" to 28 county councils after a nationwide audit of roadworks prompted by the deaths of five schoolgirls at Kentstown, Co Meath, in 2005 and of Aisling Gallagher (22) who died in December 2004 in Mulranney, Co Mayo. Both accidents involved vehicles skidding on a temporary road surface, called deep bitumen macadam (DBM), a base coat which is notoriously slippery without a chipped, gripping surface on top.
If the HSA wins, it will proceed with investigations into road accidents at sites where, it argues, work was ongoing and which therefore constituted workplaces.
Aisling Gallagher's father, Tommy, explains Fort wants recognition that its loved ones contributed nothing to their deaths, and some culpability admitted by local authorities. It also wants more attention paid to the issue by the Road Safety Authority.
"The RSA is busy looking after people who might be killed through speeding, or drinking, or not wearing their seat-belts, but if the local council leaves a road without adequate signage or an unsafe surface and competent, innocent drivers die as a result, it doesn't want to know."
A spokesman said the RSA was unable to comment given the pending High Court judgment. "But we are obviously watching the case with great interest. This is clearly a road safety issue."
In the Sinead McDaid case, the HSA is also being challenged by Donegal County Council.
After protracted correspondence and meetings with her family - the Authority having first believed her death was not a matter for them - it sought Senior Counsel opinion, which agreed with the Farrens' belief Sinead had died at a workplace.
The Garda, who had reopened their investigation into the death but from whom co-operation had been withdrawn by the Council, had also asked the authority to investigate.
IN NOVEMBER, 2006, the HSA signalled that a "special investigation" was planned. County Manager Michael McLoone initiated judicial review proceedings against the HSA. This case has been adjourned and further hearing awaits publication of the judgement in HSA v Cork County Council.
When contacted in the past week, a spokeswoman for Mr McLoone directed The Irish Times to a document issued to the county's councillors last March explaining his challenge to the HSA.
"This process was being commenced some five and a half years after the date of the accident when the Council's advice was that it would have been incumbent on all relevant agencies to have completed their enquiries at the time of the accident in 2001 . . . As set out in the Judicial Review documentation this was felt by the Council to be an oppressive and unfair procedure."
Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins, who has campaigned on the Farren family's behalf over a number of years, describes as "appalling" the idea that "one State body would use taxpayers' money to try and prevent another State body doing its work, and even more so when that work is to find the truth about a citizen's death.
"It is absolutely crucial that the HSA be allowed to investigate local authorities and it brings into the focus the fact that outside independent bodies must be able to go in and check that local authorities are not abusing their position."
When asked its view on local authorities using public money to challenge the work of another statutory body, the Department of the Environment and Local Government said: "This is a matter between the local authorities, the Department of Transport and the HSA. This department has no comment to make as it is sub judice and a matter for the courts." The Department of Transport would not comment.
Donegal county councillor Pádraig Mac Lochlainn of Sinn Féin criticised the county manager's move against the HSA in the council chamber.
"It was difficult for me because I know some of the road engineers and workers personally. But it is important that a public agency fully answer all questions. It's important to let the family move on from this."
John and Magdalene Farren say their, and Fort's demands, are simple. "We want it recognised that our children died through no fault of their own and we want to see it that when local authorities are issued with safety guidelines and they don't operate them, that they are held accountable."
