The death of a 32-year-old, man who died when his van collided with a lorry near Claremorris, Co Mayo, on Monday evening, has focused renewed attention on a stretch of the N17 where there have been numerous fatalities over the past year.
Sean Maye, a landscaper and father of two from Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, was the seventh person to be fatally injured this year on a 6.5km-stretch of the N17 outside Claremorris.
On the wider N17 route, a national primary road which connects counties Sligo and Galway, there have been 12 fatalities in the past eleven months.
The latest tragedy occurred in the townland of Corbally, close to the location where 47-year-old Una Bowden and her daughters Saoirse (10) and Ciara (14) lost their lives last March.
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Opening an inquest into their deaths, the coroner for the District of Mayo, Pat O’Connor (now retired) described their deaths as “an unspeakable tragedy”.
Despite the N17 being one of the better roads in the region, it has witnessed a series of “horrific” tragedies, Mr O’Connor said.
Sympathising with the family and friends of Mr Maye, Paul Lawless, a Knock based member of Mayo County Council, said a dual carriageway is the best solution to reducing the carnage.
He said: “The volume of traffic is huge, 9,200 vehicles per day.
“In relation to the Knock/Collooney project, plans for a dual carriageway have been reduced to a single carriageway.
“The N17 is substandard and needs to be upgraded for economic reasons and for health and safety reasons”.
Mayo County Council has proposed closing eight junctions on the stretch of N17 which has the worst crash rate.
Conrad Harley, senior engineer, presented a report on the proposed junction closures at the October meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District.
He explained it was proposed to close the junctions as “they add unnecessary levels of confusion on this section of the N17 which has a high volume of traffic that is travelling close to the maximum speed limit”.
It is also proposed to construct five new right-turning lanes at a number of locations.
A public consultation process is scheduled for the near future.
The funeral of Mr Maye will take place in Tubbercurry on Thursday.
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