Road accidents and deaths time to take the Jungle of the roads

It may be impossible to see them coming on to the roundabout but you will clearly see them.when they come around from the right. If you can't see them entering the roundabout as you get to it because they are on the opposite side then you really shouldn't have a problem.

There was a very sad case in Galway a few years ago, where an elderly man was reported missing for a few days/ weeks, but no sightings.

Later, a passer-by on a double decker bus reported seeing a car crashed into the jungle of a roundabout along one of the main entry points into the city, it was unnoticeable from road level.

The poor chap had crashed his car into the roundabout at night, and nobody saw it to aid him. His remains were removed later by the fire service. It was such a tragic case, and for me, really highlighted the sheer stupidity of putting high growing hedges/ trees in the middle of roundabouts, yet it still persists!!

Not all roundabouts are perfect 0,90,180,270 entry points, not all vehicles have quick acceleration. There are roundabouts with badly overgrown planting, restricting sightlines. It can be particularly bad trying to pull away on busier roundabouts. So when trying to time, when to move off, improved sightlines help.

You might not believe it, but they are out there.

Plenty of roads around me with ferns over growing on both sides, significantly reducing the width of the road. Surely as a cyclist you can see the potential for an accident in this.

The point is that there's no obvious reason for overgrown roundabouts to exist at all. I know we're all into this notion of letting greenery grow wild for nature nowadays, but safety and common sense has to override stuff like this when there are multiple fast-moving vehicles involved.

Let's not forget the mini-roundabouts or painted circles on the road where the junction itself isn't wide enough for them.

Personally there's many roundabouts I can think of where a proper junction with lights would be far better and safer - take the infamous Walkinstown roundabout in Dublin for example. How is that chaotic high-speed last-minute free-for-all safer and better than installing proper signalled junctions?

And while that's nice in theory, and even correct in theory, the reality is very different for exactly those same reasons and you won't get everyone to operate at the speed/ability of the lowest common denominator - which is why for example there's issues with dawdlers on motorways rather than everyone trundling along at 80 km/h.

In the real world you remove unnecessary obstacles to improved flow and safety, not make excuses for them. Those who can't meet the standard needed probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

If we're talking utopia then they should be off the main carriageway as for example they would be in the Netherlands.

But there are many people who just aren't suited to driving too - poor spatial awareness, hesitant, nervous etc. They shouldn't be on the roads either.

This mentality that we must enable and accommodate everyone regardless of ability or common sense is why there are so many issues.

In fairness, it's possible to crash in heaps of places along our roads and the car not be visible from the road afterwards. Happens in the States quite a lot, crashed cars not being found until maybe decades afterwards.