Accident on Kingston cross

the untitled user

Pretty bad looking accident, car forced up over the wall of the house between Taylors Hill Road and Threadneedle road. The lane coming up from Taylors hill is blocked so best avoid for the time being.

edit: clear again as of 14.35

cats.life

holy crap, im only home after coming that direction from the hospital..dont like that road at the best of times but i so very hope that there is no one killed.

dilallio

That's awful.
I live nearby and heard the sirens a while ago. I hope those involved will be ok.

There was another crash there last Monday and I wrote an email to Hildegarde Naughton only this morning, asking would she raise the issue with the City Council.
Hildegarde responded immediately and indicated in her reply that she has asked Ciaran Hayes and Joe Tansey from Galway City Council to look at the issue.

From: <snip my email>
Sent: 28 September 2011 10:17
To: <snip Hildegarde's email>
Subject: Threadneedle Road Junction - Safety Issue

Hi Hildegarde,
I am writing this email as a result of an accident last Monday on the junction at the top of Threadneedle Road.
2 cars collided and only through the grace of God, nobody was seriously injured. There were pedestrians on the footpath near the lights, and one of the cars almost mounted the footpath as a result of the accident. As this junction is very close to 2 schools, Enda’s and Salerno, I think that this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency by the City Council.

I realise you are more than likely very familiar with the junction, but I have included links below.

The junction in question is at the top of Threadneedle Road in Galway City. Here is an aerial view of the junction. There are 2 large schools within 200 metres of the junction.

It's a 4 way junction with traffic lights which is on the top of a steep hill. The hill is going up from south to north, and traffic coming from the south can only see 10 - 15 metres on the north side of the junction.
See google streetview here for a better view.

This would not be an issue but the light sequence was changed at some time in the past to cope with increased traffic coming onto the junction from the north. This is resulting in the traffic lights for cars coming up the hill (south to north) being switched to red approx 40 secs before the lights coming from the opposite direction turn red.

Cars coming from the south who wish to turn right have to wait for the junction to be clear before turning right as per normal, but the 40 sec delay, combined with the limited view of oncoming traffic puts them frequently stuck in no-mans-land, especially when the lights turn amber and then red.

Because of the very limited view of oncoming traffic, when it looks like there is a break in oncoming traffic, they enter the junction and prepare to turn right. In the few moments that this occurs, traffic can appear again suddenly from the north.

There is no yellow box anywhere in the junction which might keep cars off the junction unless the exit is clear.

Unfortunately, a lot of cars coming from the Dean Roundabout on Bishop O’Donnell Rd, speed up when they observe that the green right arrow allowing a right turn onto the Kingston Rd is green – this indicates to ‘knowledgeable’ drivers that the lights may change to red very soon, and they unfortunately speed up to get through the junction before the lights change. Of course this is completely down to bad driver behaviour, and I only mention as I feel it contributes to the junction being unsafe.
On Monday last, the crash occurred when a car turning right onto Taylors Hill Rd was hit by a car coming from Bishop O’Donnell Rd. As a result of the collision, the car coming from Bishop O’Donnell Rd almost mounted the footpath where pedestrians were waiting at the lights.


There are a few possible ways of improving the safety at this junction.

1. They could modify the lights and install a green right-turn only light for traffic driving up Threadneedle Rd who wish to turn right onto Taylors Hill Road.

2. They could alter the lights back to their original sequencing.

3. They could also make it illegal for cars coming up the hill to turn right, and force them straight and around the roundabout which is 350 metres away.

Would you be able to discuss this with the appropriate Council official and see if anything can be done to improve the safety at the junction.

Best regards,
<snip>

the untitled user

Forgot to mention, the lights were out. They have been for the past 2 days. Someone from the council put up some cardboard stop signs but nobody was paying heed to them. Indeed, a sizeable amount of people from Kingston road going straight through wouldn't even yield to traffic already on the junction. I'm guessing this is what happened, but it was hard to tell.

As regards your letter Dilallio, I totally agree. There's no real need for people to be turning right at that junction when they can either go down to the roundabout or down Dr. Mannix.

Gremlinertia

Well the accident is all cleaned up now - all you need to worry about is the stupid effin lights still being out. :mad:

snubbleste

How are pedestrians supposed to cross the road if there are no lights?

Gremlinertia

The obvious (but true) answer is with great difficulty - i'm trying to avoid it but have to give in to the dogs wishes to visit the beach! :pac:

paulgalway

I drop son to Enda's most morning. Twice this week I have seen females approach the junction (from enda's direction) with the intention of turning right onto Talyor's hill; and even though the lights were red, and had been for a while; they ignored them and kept going, forcing the traffic from the roundabout to break suddenly.

I presume they were unable to do a hill start.

GerardKeating

the untitled user wrote: »

Forgot to mention, the lights were out. They have been for the past 2 days. Someone from the council put up some cardboard stop signs but nobody was paying heed to them. Indeed, a sizeable amount of people from Kingston road going straight through wouldn't even yield to traffic already on the junction. I'm guessing this is what happened, but it was hard to tell.

As regards your letter Dilallio, I totally agree. There's no real need for people to be turning right at that junction when they can either go down to the roundabout or down Dr. Mannix.

I know they are going out of fashion just now, but a Round-about at this junction might help....

LuckyMary13

dilallio wrote: »

That's awful.
I live nearby and heard the sirens a while ago. I hope those involved will be ok.

There was another crash there last Monday and I wrote an email to Hildegarde Naughton only this morning, asking would she raise the issue with the City Council.
Hildegarde responded immediately and indicated in her reply that she has asked Ciaran Hayes and Joe Tansey from Galway City Council to look at the issue.

From: <snip my email>
Sent: 28 September 2011 10:17
To: <snip Hildegarde's email>
Subject: Threadneedle Road Junction - Safety Issue

Fair play to you.

the untitled user

paulgalway wrote: »

I drop son to Enda's most morning. Twice this week I have seen females approach the junction (from enda's direction) with the intention of turning right onto Talyor's hill; and even though the lights were red, and had been for a while; they ignored them and kept going, forcing the traffic from the roundabout to break suddenly.

I presume they were unable to do a hill start.

I've seen this occasionally. I think the problem is that the approach of the roads aren't straight, so people can't take up the normal position to turn right from Threadneedle without cutting off those going right from Bishop O'Donnell. They inch forward a bit past the stop line, so in their minds they have entered the junction but to the other approaches they haven't, making it look like they've broken a red as nobody ever yields to them.

It's back to the problem then that Dilallio is on about, if traffic is heavy from Bishop O'Donnell, there's no effective window to turn right without forcing yourself into some form of oncoming traffic. So in order not to stay stuck behind the lights indefinitely, people force their way into oncoming traffic when it is unsafe to do so.

hal9000

This junction drives me crazy!! turning right from the taylors side to bishop o'donnell road should be made illegal, at least all other junction entrances have more than one lane but the taylors side has only one and when one person decides to turn right no one can get by.
20sec later the light goes red, allowing a grand total of one car to get through!! rinse and repeat! :mad:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=53.267035,-9.087968&spn=0.00856,0.022724&t=m&vpsrc=0&layer=c&cbll=53.26706,-9.087831&panoid=L9UI_bKgweMSkxOXWsVICQ&cbp=12,259.92,,0,12.54&z=16

CaliforniaDream

I think part of the problem is, when lights are out the majority of drivers don't seem to know what to do.
I currently live in the states, and when lights at junctions go out everyone simply treats it as a 4-way Stop Sign junction. Basically each direction takes their turn going through the junction based on who was their first. (Not sure if that explains it properly actually...).
It works really well and I've yet to see an accident at one.

Never had to use that junction much and I'm glad for it. Unfortunately there are a lot of junctions in Galway that don't have proper planning.