Meeting on notorious Kildare junction to be held next week
Locals are making an urgent call for a safer design at the busy junction
A ROAD safety and crime prevention talk focused on the notorious Beggars End five-road junction near Naas is set to take place at Punchestown Racecourse on Tuesday 12 May.
Naas Gardaí and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) will be present to discuss the dangerous crossroads which is on the Naas to Blessington route.
Locals are making an urgent call for a safer design at the busy junction. They are seeking a safety assessment, speed reduction and traffic-calming measures and a possible junction redesign option. The implementation of a roundabout has been mooted.
Limited visibility in parts and several streams of traffic merging in a tight space make it difficult for drivers which has led to regular near-misses and a number of accidents, including at least two serious collisions in recent years.
Locals say peeding is adding to the problem, with some drivers failing to slow down as they pass through the junction. This – combined with high traffic volume including commuters and traffic diverted from the nearby N7 – means that the strain on the existing road layout continues to increase.
Those familiar with the road say that without significant improvements the risk of serious or fatal accidents remains.
Local resident and one of the organisers of the meeting Sinéad Moore said: “We’ve got a couple of families on the road who’ve already lost relatives on roads – not necessarily down there (at the junction) – but close by. We don’t want to see another family member or friend or relative or someone close by to be involved in a car accident”.
She continued: “We see near-misses there on a regular basis, nearly every day, crossing that road”.
Ms Moore noted that the Punchestown festival is the only time of year where there is an improvement at the junction because of the police presence to assist people in getting across the road.
Earlier this year, cllr Evie Sammon asked Kildare County Council at February’s Naas Municipal District meeting to outline the outcome of the traffic assessment at the crossroads, which was due to take place last year.
The council’s response said that the assessment had still not taken place and would be “added to the list for completion”.
Speaking at that meeting, cllr Sammon expressed her disappointment with this and articulated her concern with regards the situation at the crossroads, saying that “it’s just becoming more and more dangerous”.
Locals have been invited to attend the upcoming meeting, which will begin at 7pm on 12 May.
