All fatal crash sites will be investigated by an engineer within 72-hours to see if the road is dangerous when a pilot project is rolled out nationally later this year, writes David Labanyi
The plan was drawn up last April by the National Roads Authority, Kilkenny Co Council and the Kilkenny Garda Division to provide an immediate response to engineering issues that may have contributed to a fatal or serious collision.
For the past 12 months a Kilkenny county council engineer has met with the investigating garda at the scene of all fatal or serious crashes in Co Kilkenny within three days of the collision, to discuss whether road engineering was a contributory factor.
Harry Cullen, head of safety at the NRA, said the current system where Garda crash report forms are collated and analysed at the end of the year by the NRA means crash data can often be 18 months old.
"The benefit of the approach we're taking in Co Kilkenny is that the engineer visits the site and can decide if there is a road-related issue. If there is a problem it can be remedied immediately rather than waiting 12 or 18 months for the national data to be analysed.
"It might have a site where a sign has been knocked down and never replaced. Sometimes the remedial work is just hedge-cutting to improve sightlines. "However, the crucial thing is the engineer would know if there was something missing or required that would make that stretch of road safer." To ensure the location of the crash is accurately identified the road engineer brings a GPS box for exact co-ordinates.
This saves valuable time, Mr Cullen says. "Sometimes the garda sketch may not replicate the scene or the junction. Then you have to back to the garda and try and clarify it. If the crash site isn't marked exactly on a map there is a lot of work required to identify exactly where the crash took place. We have to go through hand-written reports and check for inconsistencies."
The Co Kilkenny scheme cuts out many of these difficulties, Mr Cullen says. A report on the project is currently being complied for the High Level Group on Road Safety and will be submitted within the next two months. Mr Cullen says the report will recommend rolling out the system nationwide. "We need this information. It is critical for us."
However, for a national roll-out to be successful there is one issue that will need to be resolved. "The big problem we have had is meeting the three-day time limit for visiting the crash site.
"It is really difficult, the investigating garda might be working nights, or on a week off. So one of the recommendations is that if the garda who investigated the crash is not available then a stand in garda will be briefed and made available so it doesn't drift on an on."
The pilot is part of a changing road safety remit for the NRA, which will shortly handover much of its road safety research function to the Road Safety Authority. It is also changing its approach to remedial road works.
Mr Cullen says over the next few years the NRA is going "to run out of accident black spots because we are doing so many of them. What we find is that if there is a series of crashes at one junction, you treat it, the crashes move on to the next one".
To counter this, the NRA is planning six "route treatments" that will see the lining, signs and traffic calming measures and junctions all improved together over a stretch of about 30km of road.
"What we are hoping to do is make the road consistent for the driver," says Mr Cullen.
The roads the NRA has selected for route treatment are the N53 from Louth to Monaghan, the N60 from Mayo to Roscommon, the N62 from North Tipperary through Offaly and on to Westmeath, the N69 between Kerry and Limerick, the N72 from Cork to Waterford and the length of the N80.