Motorways are the safest routes for traffic, but there's always room forimprovement, reports Patrick Logue
Motorways are generally accepted as the safest roads for cars, vans and trucks. A slow lane and a fast lane allow easy and relatively risk-free overtaking, while the absence of right turns removes the risk of high-speed pile-ups from behind. Not only that - in theory Sunday drivers, cattle-herding farmers, pedestrians and cyclists are removed from the equation.
Statistics suggest you are 65 per cent less likely to have an accident on a motorway than on a two-lane national route. If you do have an accident it's 75 per cent less likely to be fatal.
All very reassuring, considering the Government is engaged in projects which will link Dublin to Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and the Border north of Dundalk with motorways or high-quality dual carriageways. All will be complete by the end of 2006, except the Waterford route which will be open in 2007.
But a number of high-profile crashes have brought the issue of metal crash barriers in the central reservations of motorways to the fore. Large stretches of our motorways do not have central barriers - but instead wide reservations with hedging and wire in the middle.
Last year a car ploughed through the M50 reservation in Dublin into the path of a car driven by Rev David Boylan. Three people were killed. Last August three young people from Dundalk, Co Louth - Gerard McLoughlin, Celine McArdle, and Elaine McGeogh - died when they crashed through the M1's central reservation on the Dunleer bypass north of Drogheda, colliding with an oncoming van. At an inquest earlier this month into the deaths of Gerard and Celine, Louth County Coroner Ronan Maguire described the M1 as the most "dangerous road in Ireland".
In the aftermath of both these crashes, the National Roads Authority (NRA) faced calls for the immediate installation of metal crash barriers as standard on motorways.
Michael Egan of the NRA says the authority is "disturbed" by such crashes, but insists wide central reservations of 15 metres or more should be an ample safety measure. "The safety feature of the Dunleer bypass is the width of the central reservation," says Egan, adding that with reservations of at least 8 metres "the vast majority of drivers will regain control in the central reservation."
Now the NRA has revised its attitude to crash barriers and is in the middle of a programme of installing barriers where the central reservation is 15 metres or less. Parts of the M50 and the M1 will be fitted with new barriers as a result.
"We keep our road safety performance under regular review," says Egan. "We were doing that following the accident on the M50 in 2001. We came to the conclusion that we should modify our approach. Most of the work will be done in a two- to three-year period."
In Britain, "safety barriers" are fitted to motorways where the central reservation is 10 metres or less. In practice this means there are central barriers on virtually the whole length of the British motorway network.
Barriers are the favoured road safety option for motorways there, according to a spokesperson for the British Highways Agency.
"The intention is that the barrier will contain the vehicle by absorbing its speed to slow it down and then carrying it along. After striking the barrier, vehicles return to the carriageway.
"This is preferable to vehicles crossing into the path of oncoming traffic. Drivers travelling on the same carriageway will have seen the incident and will be more able to react," the spokesperson added.
Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland says we have to be sensible about the issue and avoid taking an "absolutist" approach.
"You could probably build six hospitals for the cost of installing median barriers on all our roads," Faughnan adds. It cost an average of €80 per metre of crash barrier.
"However, there are roads that don't have them which desperately need them. The M50 is a classic example where 80,000 vehicles use it every day." On such roads the immediate installation of the barriers is "essential", Faughnan believes. "Head-on collisions are rare, but they are catastrophic when they do happen."
Faughnan says it is necessary to examine the experience of other countries in relation to the use of centre crash barriers on roads.
In Sweden, for example, authorities have introduced a "two plus one" format for two-lane roads. The system works by having two lanes travelling in one direction and one in the other direction. After five kilometres the sides are switched. The system avoids frustrated drivers taking risks to overtake slow vehicles.
The good news for those who believe crash barriers are a vital part of motorway safety is that in future all motorways in Ireland may have them fitted as standard, as they are in Britain; this arises from financial concerns as much as concerns about road safety.
The price of land has pushed the cost of motorway building to €10 million per kilometre for roads with wide central reservations such as the M50.
But, with EU money drying up and Government finances under increased pressure, the NRA will be looking to build motorways with narrow central reservations, for a reduced cost of €7.7 million per kilometre.
"We are moving towards building more of this type . . . financial concerns are part of the reason," Egan says. "We have to cut our cloth according to our measure." This new type of "lean" motorway will be fitted with a continuous crash barrier in the centre as standard, because of the proximity of the two sides.