Crashes on the N40

ncmc

Is it just my imagination or has there been a huge increase in the number of crashes/fender benders on the N40 at busy commuter times. Seems to be mainly centered around the Bloomfield Interchange, but the whole stretch from the tunnel to Kinsale Rd roundabout seems to be an accident black spot. I'm just back to work after maternity leave and in the three weeks I'm back, I've been delayed 6 times (and I only work Monday - Thursday!) and this morning I see a tweet from 96FM saying there is another crash. Invariably even the smallest fender bender clogs up the whole road for 30 mins or more.

Looking at the behaviour of drivers it's not hard to see why it's happening, switching lanes with no warnings, driving way too close to the car in front, driving too fast for the conditions. But can anything be done? Could the speed limit be reduced at certain hours? Or would a garda presence for a few weeks make a difference? Or something be done with the traffic from Douglas so there isn't so much lane switches with no warning? It's got to the stage where allowing 50 mins from Dunkettle interchange to kinsale road isn't enough, it's very frustrating, I'm either 45 mins early or late!

Chemical Byrne

No , you're not imagining it at all. A crash is almost to be expected there every other morning. I've been held up by it innumerable times and people were even talking about the frequency of crashed here in work this morning.

The standard of motoring on the N40 is attrocious, it's little wonder there are so many crashes. Everyone is so damn aggressive on that road.
Driving too fast; not leaving enough room; people on the mainline refusing to allow traffic to merge; people crossing multiple lanes at once; on the phone etc etc.

D'Agger

Been talking about this at work the past two weeks - seems a day hasn't gone by without incident.

A pet peev of mine is cars going towards the Kinsale road roundabout staying in the right/overtaking lane and tailgating, staying in the middle/centre lane constantly has people driving up, braking to very slow speeds and looking to cut in to the Kinsale roundabout where the flyover is.

I understand to an extent why people stay in the right lane for this reason but slowness & the tailgating means it's really dangerous

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

No , you're not imagining it at all. A crash is almost to be expected there every other morning. I've been held up by it innumerable times and people were even talking about the frequency of crashed here in work this morning.

The standard of motoring on the N40 is attrocious, it's little wonder there are so many crashes. Everyone is so damn aggressive on that road.
Driving too fast; not leaving enough room; people on the mainline refusing to allow traffic to merge; people crossing multiple lanes at once; on the phone etc etc.

Now that you mention it, was coming down the flyover at Kinsale - headed towards the Douglas exits, almost had a guy go straight into the side of me - merged from the roundabout and continued to sweep onto my lane without looking, slammed on the brakes and he barely missed me - phone up to the ear...hard not to lose your shít at that kind of carry on

ABajaninCork

I drove along there today. I did not enjoy the experience...

Some of the driving I've seen is truly frightening. It doesn't help that I think the road is poorly signposted either, especially at the Kinsale roundabout turning off to either the City or to Togher. Nightmare!

mcko

The main problem is a lack of Gardai on the roads, also drivers who can't q in traffic like the rest of us.

road_high

Drove that road al times a few months back. Couldn't get over the amount of overtaking lane hoggers, worst I've seen in this country and that's saying something. Maybe the 100kmh limit exaggerates these or something.

nomeban

My colleague uses the tunnel & N40 to get to work daily and she is ridiculousy late at least once a week due to some sort of accident on that feckin road. It's bloody ridiculous!

I can't believe how many crashes she's been stuck behind. Not just recently but all through 2014. It took her 1 hour and a half to drive from Middleton to Wilton last week!

What the hell is going on with the N40?!?!?!

Starscream25

I'm a motorcyclist and can't afford a car, going back to college in the next week, dreading using that road, might take the route through Patricks street instead.
Just be careful everybody and don't forget the 2 second rule, and don't be using your phones while driving, watching a young driver overtake me at 70mph while on the phone I nearly had a heart attack.

nomeban

If you see a driver on their phone is there any way of reporting them? Or even bad driving - can we report that? I have a dashcam if that makes a difference. It might not be able to see somebody talking on the phone but it does record idiotic behaviour every day.

kub

nomeban wrote: »

If you see a driver on their phone is there any way of reporting them? Or even bad driving - can we report that? I have a dashcam if that makes a difference. It might not be able to see somebody talking on the phone but it does record idiotic behaviour every day.

You can of course report it, but in order for a prosecution to be enforced you would have to be a witness in a court room.
Different of course if you report it and a Garda actually witnesses the crime him or herself.

namloc1980

The driving on that stretch of road is absolutely horrendous. Irish people generally are very poor motorway drivers with poor lane discipline and little consideration for fellow road users. And the use of mobile phones while driving is phenomenol. Never seen it so bad.

kcb

The way I see it:

1. Horrendously bad road designs, ie. allowing KRR (Kinsale Rd Rndbt) traffic merge too near to flyover and also the lack of lanes coming from Carrs Hill onto N40.
There are many more examples too.

2. Impatient idiots that do not use the full slip road / merge lane ie. coming from KRR onto N40. Irish drivers do not seem to understand the use of lanes.

3. People who sweep across 2-3 lanes in one movement

4. People who cruise along in the overtaking lane (whoever called it the "fast lane" should be shot!)

5. General bad driving skills and knowledge

6. General ignorance / arrogance and lack of respect for others safety (this could be called a lack of understanding of the dangers of the roads)

7. Major lack of police on the roads


Another thing that seems to be a new phenomenon is:
- people no longer stopping on orange lights, it's now 3-4 secs after it goes red
- people preempting a green light and setting off in advance of it turning green

A disaster waiting to happen.

mcko

I agree with the red lights if your light is green you often get 2 cars coming through the red, also cyclists on foot paths, are we completely lawless when it comes to the roads.

nomeban

mcko wrote: »

I agree with the red lights if your light is green you often get 2 cars coming through the red, also cyclists on foot paths, are we completely lawless when it comes to the roads.

Happens in the city centre too. Ive often walked at the green man only to nearly be flattened by a car. Imagine if I was actually blind and trusted that beeping noise! This happens a lot at the lights around the opera house.

mordeith

nomeban wrote: »

Happens in the city centre too. Ive often walked at the green man only to nearly be flattened by a car. Imagine if I was actually blind and trusted that beeping noise! This happens a lot at the lights around the opera house.

Happens all the time in town. Singers corner lights are the worst.

run_Forrest_run

The hogging of the overtaking lane I feel is because of the clowns in the middle lane approaching the kinsale roundabout actually stopping in the lane trying to merge into the left lane for the said roundabout in an attempt to queue hop.

I'm not condoning the overtaking lane hogging but just highlighting how one ignorant and dangerous practice gives rise to another bad and dangerous practice.

Drivers on that road are pig ignorant and some Garda presence would definitely help. Of course it shouldn't come to that but hey, this is Ireland.

ncmc

mcko wrote: »

I agree with the red lights if your light is green you often get 2 cars coming through the red, also cyclists on foot paths, are we completely lawless when it comes to the roads.

I find this very bad on the Dunkettle interchange itself, I think traffic coming around the roundabout is particularly bad for this, blocking up the whole intersection so the traffic from Dublin side can't move. If everyone just obeyed the lights, then there might not be 30 min queues on the dublin side every morning. The annoying thing is that traffic on the roundabout already has priority and the sequence of green is very short coming from Dublin. But everyone just cares about themselves and f*ck the traffic flow.

D'Agger

kcb wrote: »

The way I see it:

1. Horrendously bad road designs, ie. allowing KRR (Kinsale Rd Rndbt) traffic merge too near to flyover and also the lack of lanes coming from Carrs Hill onto N40.
There are many more examples too.

2. Impatient idiots that do not use the full slip road / merge lane ie. coming from KRR onto N40. Irish drivers do not seem to understand the use of lanes.

3. People who sweep across 2-3 lanes in one movement

4. People who cruise along in the overtaking lane (whoever called it the "fast lane" should be shot!)

5. General bad driving skills and knowledge

6. General ignorance / arrogance and lack of respect for others safety (this could be called a lack of understanding of the dangers of the roads)

7. Major lack of police on the roads


Another thing that seems to be a new phenomenon is:
- people no longer stopping on orange lights, it's now 3-4 secs after it goes red
- people preempting a green light and setting off in advance of it turning green

A disaster waiting to happen.

All spot on points kcb

With regard to the breaking of reds - Cork is renowned for the amount of traffic lights around the city, but the number of people in this City who break reds drives me up the walls.

I use the Well road everyday and that junction is beyond belief, particularly coming from Douglas road in towards Douglas (Topaz) - every day I see the light go red and at least two more cars fly through and that's the danger - they're not just chancing it - they're absolutely flooring it!

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

The hogging of the overtaking lane I feel is because of the clowns in the middle lane approaching the kinsale roundabout actually stopping in the lane trying to merge into the left lane for the said roundabout in an attempt to queue hop.

I'm not condoning the overtaking lane hogging but just highlighting how one ignorant and dangerous practice gives rise to another bad and dangerous practice.

Drivers on that road are pig ignorant and some Garda presence would definitely help. Of course it shouldn't come to that but hey, this is Ireland.

It's exactly the reason behind the fast lane hogging. I can admit myself to staying in the queue of traffic in the overtaking lane - I will normally try to pull in after the KRR, but normally by the time you're hitting the flyover you're going 80km because somebody at the top of the queue is oblivious to the fact that you drive on the left in this country, including the left lane on motorways etc. - if I pull into the left lane then I'm stuck there at a snails pace, unable to get back into the overtaking lane due to the queue of traffic taking up the lane - while that is the correct way to go about things, unless more people are doing it then it's infuriating & pointless

pa990

Cheap Chinese tyres are on a lot of cars involved in these accidents.

just something I've noticed on my travels

ABajaninCork

Yup. Something I've noticed here a lot. My husband's put on some crappy tyres on our car which I'm not happy with and want to change them to Goodyears or similar which I've always had on my cars.

Better to be safe rather than sorry.

namloc1980

Some of the driving in the tunnel is also quite frightening: speeding, crossing lanes and undertaking amongst other things are regular occurrences.

clerk

kcb wrote: »

Another thing that seems to be a new phenomenon is:
- people no longer stopping on orange lights, it's now 3-4 secs after it goes red

People in Cork go through red lights at an unreal rate.

When you're trying to pull out of Mahon Point and heading towards the City is an example. The lights go green and 3/4 more cars will be coming through meaning the cars can't move on green !! it's mad stuff. There was a head on crash there one Day right in the middle of the whole junction.

An English buddy of mine was saying to me we take off fierce slow on a green and l said if you take off fast on a green all the time in Cork a 'red light breaker' will plough into you and he had a think about it and said, "yeah, you're right".

clerk

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Yup. Something I've noticed here a lot. My husband's put on some crappy tyres on our car which I'm not happy with and want to change them to Goodyears or similar which I've always had on my cars.

Better to be safe rather than sorry.

A buddy of mine who knows his stuff about cars said if you're a near accident and need to do an emergency stop the only bit of the car touching the road are the 4 bits of rubber.

I know times are tough but tyres are the last thing to cut back on.

Also, another thing he said was that cars are designed and car tested with the appropriate sized tyres. Appearently a lot of these boy racers take the tyres off and put different size tyres on. If these tyres are a different size to the appropriate size they may not react properly in a crash. l'm amazed there's not more coverage of it on the TV or whatever. It's absolute Mad Max stuff.

mik_da_man

Sorry but that's a load of ill informed rubbish.
So called "boy racers" are a lot more likely to spend a few quid on decent tyres as they are a lot more likely to know what's needed to keep the car between the ditches.

Your average punter goes into the tyre shop and looks for the cheapest rubbish so it will pass NCT, I'd fully agree with the poster above who links crap tyres to crashes.

The difference is huge. I'd fully advise everyone to test it out if you ever get a chance. I've bought cars with cheap tyres and its the first thing I'd change.



Just back OT anyway, I drive the N40 every day, the vast majority of crashes are quite minor.
Small tips but cause chaos.
Simple cause everytime , people not leaving enough space to the car in front and not paying enough attention. Do this with crap tyres and your straight into the back of someone.

Two other tips:

The merge lanes are long, use them, not just the start or end.
Let cars merge!

ABajaninCork

mik_da_man wrote: »

Just back OT anyway, I drive the N40 every day, the vast majority of crashes are quite minor.
Small tips but cause chaos.
Simple cause everytime , people not leaving enough space to the car in front and not paying enough attention. Do this with crap tyres and your straight into the back of someone.

Two other tips:

The merge lanes are long, use them, not just the start or end.
Let cars merge!

Another reason would be the cars slowing down to have a good look! Hit traffic going into the tunnel the other day in the early afternoon. Very slow going into the tunnel. When I got there, there was a prang. Cars were to the side of the road, and not blocking anything. But the cars in front were having a good gawp.

Drives me mad. As long as there's nobody hurt and things are being taken care of, there's no reason for the traffic to slow.

clerk

mik_da_man wrote: »

Sorry but that's a load of ill informed rubbish.
So called "boy racers" are a lot more likely to spend a few quid on decent tyres as they are a lot more likely to know what's needed to keep the car between the ditches.

The point l was making was about boy racers putting incorrectly "sized" tyres on their cars.

l did not say anything about them putting pure quality tyres on their cars, that was a generic point l made.

The guy I was talking to is a qualified mechanic who has been talking to car engineers/assessors after car crashes.

Look you're entitled to your opinion but it's not "ill informed rubbish" as you put it. If you have the wrong size tyres on any motor vehicle it's not going to have a good end result in a car crash, it will at the very least interfere with your brake time.

Dave147

D'Agger wrote: »

Been talking about this at work the past two weeks - seems a day hasn't gone by without incident.

A pet peev of mine is cars going towards the Kinsale road roundabout staying in the right/overtaking lane and tailgating, staying in the middle/centre lane constantly has people driving up, braking to very slow speeds and looking to cut in to the Kinsale roundabout where the flyover is.

I understand to an extent why people stay in the right lane for this reason but slowness & the tailgating means it's really dangerous



Now that you mention it, was coming down the flyover at Kinsale - headed towards the Douglas exits, almost had a guy go straight into the side of me - merged from the roundabout and continued to sweep onto my lane without looking, slammed on the brakes and he barely missed me - phone up to the ear...hard not to lose your shít at that kind of carry on

I've a severe back injury thanks to that. ****ing morons haven't a clue how to drive, car smashed into the back of me.

Bacchus

Crazy van driver on the ring road this morning (got on at Kinsale Road Roundabout from the link road). He was just weaving between lanes, no indicator and didn't seem to care that there were cars in the lane already. He got blasted out of it by a few drivers he nearly hit. We stayed well back from him. What a muppet.

mcko

Look around any car park and the amount of cars and jeeps with poor tyres is scary, I parked next to Volvo XC90 in Douglas last week and the 2 front tyres were completely bald no thread at all,I know tyres are expensive but again its all down to a lack of enforcement. I can't remember the last time I saw a traffic car on the roads never mind a check point.

mik_da_man

clerk wrote: »

The point l was making was about boy racers putting incorrectly "sized" tyres on their cars.

l did not say anything about them putting pure quality tyres on their cars, that was a generic point l made.

The guy I was talking to is a qualified mechanic who has been talking to car engineers/assessors after car crashes.

Look you're entitled to your opinion but it's not "ill informed rubbish" as you put it. If you have the wrong size tyres on any motor vehicle it's not going to have a good end result in a car crash, it will at the very least interfere with your brake time.

Maybe I was a bit harsh, but it's perfectly safe to put different sized tyres, within certain tolerances, on your car and have no adverse effect on braking. Cars come with different wheel sizes so changing from what's
factory fit is not not as dangerous as your making out.

mik_da_man

Just to add my own experience from today.

I joined the ring road at Broomfield, was exiting at KRR, merged into the exit lane about half way along between Douglas exit and the roundabout. Lady in a mini was in front of me. She indicated out and joined the ring road, slowed down a bit and I ended up side by side, then just near the end of the merging lane she decided to come back in, I had to slam on to avoid her hitting me and let her back in...
Idiot!