[Article] Two women tourists hit by bus at rush hour

loyatemu

TWO women were struck by a bus as they crossed O'Connell Street in Dublin at the height of rush hour yesterday.

Gardai sealed off the scene near The Spire close to Clery's department store for detailed examination after the accident, resulting in a traffic tailback to Parnell Square and the diversion of buses to alternative routes.

Last night the women, both British visitors on a day's shopping trip, were being treated in city hospitals for their injuries.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1469723&issue_id=13008

maybe they were just careless but O'Connell St. does resemble a pedestrianised zone these days (especially around the GPO) - perhaps the council need to make it clearer that it is not.

Dub13

the path is far to low.....if you were not use to new O'Connell St you could easily wounder onto the road and not be aware of it.

RuggieBear

yeah...i'#ve had to catch myself a few times there from walking straight out onto the "road"

BrianD

O'connell st has a long history of pedestrians wandering across the street at will and disregarding the lights. The women were probably following some other punters who were crossing the street.

I think the 'new' o'connell st is great and I would hat to see the Irish solution of banning something from everyone to protect a few. The wider pavements are great and it seems to be only around the GPO plaza that there is some controversy about where the pavement ends and the street begins.

There are a couple of things that could be done to improve the situation for all (motorists and pedestrians)

1. For motorists - defining the lanes and the carriage way edges with reflective studs or LED lighting. These could be installed without much disruption.

2. Pedestrians - they all ready have those studs down for visually impaired people. Perhaps a white lines or flashing LED lighting that define the edges of the pavement.

It would be interesting to compare accident stats for the street before and after the renewal of the street.

Sleipnir

Sounds to me like they just weren't looking where they were going.

John R

The whole re-design has been a disgrace.

The pavement and roadway are identical, people are constantly wandering onto the roadway without realising. This is entireley different from the typical jaywalking behaviour and is far more dangerous as they have no idea they are walking into the path of traffic.

The road surface is dangerously slick in the wet, I have been on a bus myself that skidded on it from a regular brake application at low speed. Any emergency braking would certainly result in a skid.

jman0

That whole stretch should be pedestrainised, it's obvious.

BrianD

John R wrote:

The whole re-design has been a disgrace.

The pavement and roadway are identical, people are constantly wandering onto the roadway without realising. This is entireley different from the typical jaywalking behaviour and is far more dangerous as they have no idea they are walking into the path of traffic.

The road surface is dangerously slick in the wet, I have been on a bus myself that skidded on it from a regular brake application at low speed. Any emergency braking would certainly result in a skid.

Personally, I think the re-design is great and couldn;t even be remotely described as a disgrace. I also believe that many of the stories about skidding and so on are close on to urban myth. People talk about it but does it really happen? The road surface in question is about 200 metres long and has 2(?) ped x's on it and no vehicle should be travelling fast enough to skid - bus drivers should be well aware of that by now. In any case there is a proposed new speed limit of 30KPH for the street.

cal29

BrianD wrote:

Personally, I think the re-design is great and couldn;t even be remotely described as a disgrace. I also believe that many of the stories about skidding and so on are close on to urban myth. People talk about it but does it really happen? The road surface in question is about 200 metres long and has 2(?) ped x's on it and no vehicle should be travelling fast enough to skid - bus drivers should be well aware of that by now. In any case there is a proposed new speed limit of 30KPH for the street.

it is not an urban myth it is a fact City council did something with the surface which improved the grip for a short while

at the moment the speed limit is 50 kph and even if reduced to 30 kph buses will still skid especially in the wet

the materials used are a disgrace and seem to have been bought solely on the basis of how they look with no tought given to how vehicles will behave on them particularly when wet which happens a lot in this country

the Layout is also very confusing with the path marked with white lines similar to the roadway it is very easy for people not paying attention or unfamilar with the raod to wander onto the roadway

cal29

jman0 wrote:

That whole stretch should be pedestrainised, it's obvious.

And what route would you suggest for the various cross city bus routes that currently use the street

jman0

cal29 wrote:

And what route would you suggest for the various cross city bus routes that currently use the street

They should take the LUAS, they should get out and walk or cycle or if they insist on using their flippin cars take the bleedin M50 all the way round.

Victor

My problem is the footpath looks like a road. Spooks me.

BrianD

Well its designed as a plaza which is supposed to be uniform in appearance. I think with some small modifications (as suggested above) along with the reduced speed limit, the area would be safer for all users.

mackerski

jman0 wrote:

They should take the LUAS, they should get out and walk or cycle or if they insist on using their flippin cars take the bleedin M50 all the way round.

You realise that cycling is not allowed in pedestrian zones? And that the Luas doesn't run along O'Connell St.?

Dermot

Bee

And once again Dublin City Council and it's loony traffic egineers, has shown it's total ineptitude in designing anything remotely safe for road users.

Just think, these are the bunch of idiots that removed audible signalling for the blind at pedestrian lights and it took a public outcry to have it restored.

The current mis-design of O'Connell St has turned it into a bus congested, fume polluted mess. The rare cyclists that are compliant with the law take their life in their hands on O'Connell St due to lethal road narrowing and dangerous design.

DCC's continuing blunder is to force normal traffic off the road onto congested side streets. At any time buses are forced to operate in a kamikaze way due to the artificially created congestion. Obviously all road users will potentially suffer serious harm.

Bee

Random

I was no more then 20ft away from them when it happened.. it was just another case of pedestrians running across the road when the traffic has the right of way. It was rush hour, there was people everywhere... it really is a wonder more such incidences don't occur.

And that person who mentions the curb... it's true, at the spike it's hard to tell what's a road and what's a path, especially to trourists who may not be used to it.

SickCert

On another note i was coming down O'connel st yesterday and a tourist was taking a picture of the spike, no problem there? But as he is framing up the picture - hes moving backwards off the road. A simple beep of the horn solved all, but another example of stepping off the path without realising.

SeanW

Between the Spire that now looks like a vandalised shambles, the "plaza" redesign of the street, and the taking away of motorcycle parking, AND the fact that Luas may come in and plow through their handywork at some point in the netxt 5 years, I think they'd have been as well off leaving O'Connell St. the way it was.

Sarsfield

As someone who has always been a frequent pedestrian on O'Connell St. there's no way it should have been left as it was. The foothpaths on both sides of the road were far too narrow.

I generally like the way the street is turning out. The main disappointment is that the Carlton cinema site is still derelict.