Plans have been drawn up to install cycle lanes on the approach to a busy junction in Dublin city centre where two cyclists were knocked down and killed recently.
The latest fatal accident at the Aston and Burgh Quay intersection with Westmoreland Street and O'Connell Bridge occurred on Tuesday evening shortly after 6 p.m. when a woman cyclist in her thirties was killed. It is understood she was cyling from Burgh Quay towards Heuston station when the accident happened. Her family were travelling from Europe to formally identify her body yesterday.
In June Dr Olivia Potterton (36), from Phibsboro, was killed when her bicycle was in collision with a truck almost at the same spot. She had just cycled up Westmoreland Street when the accident occurred at the junction.
There have been at least 18 other accidents at the busy junction over the past three years.
Dublin Corporation confirmed yesterday it planned to upgrade cycling facilities in the city and its plans included putting cycle lanes at the busy junction where the two cyclists were killed. The plan, after many months of preparation, went out to public consultation at the beginning of this month and people have until November 9th to submit their views on it.
Mr Tim O'Sullivan, executive manager with the office of the director of traffic, said the plan was being developed before the accidents but "if anything, it makes us all the more focused on these problems".
He also said it was part of the corporation's road-safety strategy to look regularly at accident statistics in the city and identify accident blackspots. The junction of Aston Quay and Westmoreland Street was identified as one such blackspot, especially for pedestrians, and a number of improvements were proposed and implemented.
These included renewing road markings and the installation of a timer at the Aston Quay pedestrian crossing to encourage pedestrians to wait for the green light before crossing, he said.
Corporation figures indicate there were 18 accidents at the junction over the past three years. There were 11 accidents, including one serious, at the junction in 1998, three in 1999 and four in 2000. Most were on the Aston Quay side of the junction.