The driver of the car stopped on the hard shoulder of the M8 motorway when a truck ran into it, killing one of its passengers, remains in a critical condition.
Irene Whelan pulled on to the hard shoulder of the motorway on Monday to allow her niece Nicola Kenny take a telephone call from Temple Street Children's University Hospital about her newborn baby daughter, Lily Rose.
Her daughter had been born on Sunday in South Tipperary General Hospital but was transferred to Dublin after developing a temperature. The group were driving to the hospital to visit her. It emerged yesterday the phone call was to tell Ms Kenny that her baby was fine and ready to be transferred to Tipperary.
Ms Kenny (26), who was sitting in the back seat, was killed when the truck crashed into the car. She will be buried today in Thurles, Co Tipperary.
Ms Whelan suffered serious chest injuries in the crash.
She was described as “critical” after deteriorating in the intensive care unit at University Hospital Limerick.
Ms Kenny’s mother Ann, who was also in the car, suffered arm and shoulder injuries but was discharged from hospital on Monday.
Most dangerous place
The driver of the truck, a man from Co Armagh, was not injured. He was questioned at Tipperary Garda station and released without charge later on Monday. A file is being prepared for the
Director of Public Prosecutions
(DPP).
Road safety experts noted yesterday that while motorways – such as the M8 and dual carriageways in general – are by far the safest roads, the hard shoulder is the most dangerous place on them.
By far the largest number of road fatalities – 74 per cent – happen on rural roads.
Some 22 per cent of road deaths occur on urban roads and just 4 per cent on motorways, according to official figures for 2011 to 2013.
“Statistically, the motorways and dual carriageways are our safest roads,” one road safety professional said.
He said this was because motorways and dual carriageways were generally very straight, did not have other roads crossing them, and had no traffic lights or roundabouts.
Opposite directions
They also have a median divide preventing vehicles travelling in opposite directions moving from one side of the road to the other.
However, as one expert put it, when something does go wrong, the consequences can be more serious than they might otherwise be.
“This is because on these roads, it’s high volume and high speed. So when things go wrong, they go badly wrong and very quickly,” he said.
More than 800 people have been killed and injured on UK motorway hard shoulders since 2000.
The Road Safety Authority pointed out that only emergency stopping – for reasons such as mechanical breakdown or tyre failure – is legal on Irish motorway hard shoulders.
The RSA and Garda advice to drivers who are forced by emergency to stop on a hard shoulder is to pull in as far to the left as possible and switch on hazard warning lights before leaving the vehicle to stand on the off-road side of any barrier or up the embankment while awaiting assistance.
Using mobile phones or stopping for non-emergency reasons risk death, said another road safety professional yesterday.
