One of Wexfords most notoriously dangerous roads has once again been highlighted.
The R733 Newline Road has seen a number of serious incidents in recent years and one local Councillor is calling for something to be done.
The Road is 56 Kilomteters long with 48 main junctions and serves as the main road between Wexford and Ballyhack
Councillor Lisa McDonald says it has major visibility issues and the road is difficult for drivers to navigate.
Ms McDonald spoke to Jim Kealy on Morning Mix today and outlined what she thinks the driver behaviour is one of the most serious problems on the road.
“I think there’s a lot of different elements that come into making a road safe and obviously driver behaviour is one of them. Some of what goes on is pure carelessness and criminal.”
She said there are “a myriad of issues and a myriad of answers”.
Just last week there was a close call when a local driver nearly had a head on collision with another car. They have since appealed for witnesses to someone over taking recklessly.
Some of the issues stem from the fact that the road has not been modernised:
“The new line road was originally a military road, it’s 56 kilometers long and there are 48 main
junctions off of it causing navigation issues. It’s not wide enough in parts for two cars.
It has visibility issues, particularly at the Wexford end during the winter in particular
when we see the mists falling from around the mountain and that causes a problem.
It also has sunset and sunrise issues causing bad visibility.
The Councillor is calling for improvements to the grants systems for roads so that the local Council can make necessary changes.
“What I had called for was for a specific improvement grant to be given for the road
so that things can be done by the Council on it. Coming up to a general election, for all parties to take pause and think about this point, we need to change the model of our road funding and
we need to change the model upon which we design roads and we keep them up, keep them
and move with modern times.
And in my humble opinion, that road hasn’t moved with modern times, it’s still as narrow
as it ever was.”
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