A CORONER has criticised authorities for failing to upgrade what he described as the most dangerous road in Ireland.
The comments came after a witness described a fatal collision involving a car driven by Rosemarie Holmes (48).
The seven-kilometre stretch of single-lane traffic between Drumfin and Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo, follows a dual carriageway on the N4 that links Dublin to Sligo.
Ms Holmes was dead on arrival in hospital after her Nissan Almera car collided with another car at Ardloy on December 16th, 2009.
Sharon Towey told Sligo Coroner’s Court how she was driving from Strokestown, Co Roscommon, to an osteopath in Sligo with her three-month-old son Michael. She said: “I was doing 44 miles per hour. I was driving around a corner when a green car came on my side. It hit me head-on. My first concern was for Michael.”
Ms Towey said her left leg was badly injured – “it was as though my foot was hanging off”. Another motorist driving directly behind her, David Feeney, who pulled up at the scene, checked Michael in his seat in the back and said he was okay.
Damian Kenny, from Gorey, Co Wexford, who was driving to Dublin from Bundoran, told of his arrival at the scene. He said: “I saw a woman with a baby and she was screaming for help. I helped her with her baby over to a wall at the side of the road. She had an injured leg.”
Ms Holmes’s neighbour in Ballinode, Carmel Smith, told the jury that Ms Holmes told her minutes before she left her house that she was “feeling woozy or anxious”. Ms Holmes was travelling to a presentation at a course she was attending in Boyle.
Garda David Maguire, who attended the scene, told the inquest that the stretch of road was a particularly dangerous one – perhaps the most dangerous in Sligo.
Coroner Desmond Moran criticised the Government, Sligo County Council and the National Roads Authority for their failure to upgrade that section of road. “It’s the most dangerous stretch of road in Ireland,” he said.
The jury found that Ms Holmes’s death was consistent with head injuries sustained in a road collision. It also called for the road to be upgraded.