Road condition: The Government has been accused of failing to respond to warnings over the danger of temporary road surfaces which may have been a factor in Monday's bus crash which killed five schoolgirls.
Witnesses to the crash say the bus skidded for several metres on the wet surface of a stretch of resurfaced road as it tried to avoid two oncoming cars.
While the investigation into the crash is continuing, one road expert who visited the crash scene said a permanent surface, which gives grip to the road, had not been added to a layer of dense bitumen macadam, known as DBM base course.
Official guidelines issued by the National Roads Authority state that surfaces of this nature should be permanently dressed within three weeks and be accompanied by warning signs and speed restrictions.
Meath County Council, which has responsibility for laying the road surface, declined to comment beyond confirming that these issues will form part of its investigation into the accident.
A number of other investigations into the crash are continuing, however there is no evidence yet that the condition of the road was a factor in the crash. Witnesses say that while there was a temporary traffic light close to the site of the accident, they did not see speed restrictions on the road.
Dr Jerry Cowley, an Independent TD, said he raised the issue of dangerous temporary road surfaces with Minister of State for Transport Ivor Callely in the Dáil on February 24th.
This followed a number of serious accidents, including the death of a woman in her 20s, on a stretch of road where there was a temporary surface close to Mulranny, Co Mayo, between December 2004 and February 2005. Dr Cowley said he treated a number of the accident victims.
However, he said no action had been taken on foot of his request that the Minister conduct an audit into road deaths associated with road surfaces of this kind and to ensure that NRA guidelines were being implemented by local authorities.
"I'm totally disappointed by his response. The buck stops with the Government on this, yet everyone seems to be washing their hands on the issue. We've now lost six lives in six months on road surfaces of this type. Yet there is a good chance that many of these deaths could be easily prevented," he said. Mr Callely told the Dáil last February he would take the issue up with the NRA in the context of any revised and further guidance to local authorities on the implementation of resurfacing works on national roads that they may consider necessary.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Pat Kenny show, he said these issues were being "actively addressed" and he had responded "positively" to Dr Cowley's request.
Tommy Gallagher, the father of Aisling Gallagher (22), who died after her car apparently skidded on a temporary road surface in Mulranny, Co Mayo, last December, visited the scene of the bus crash in Co Meath this week.
Mr Gallagher, who works in the road construction industry, said the stretch of road where the crash occurred was laid with DBM base course. The circumstances of the crash were very similar to those which involved the death of his daughter, he said. The temporary road surface, combined with rainfall, would have contributed to potentially "lethal" road conditions, he added.
