The Minister of State for Transport, Mr Ivor Callely, will this morning demand that "median barriers or appropriate safety measures" are immediately put in place on the M50 following a major accident which left two children fighting for their lives. Tim O'Brien and Liam Reid report
The accident occurred when a car crossed the central reservation of the motorway and ploughed into oncoming traffic on the opposite lane yesterday morning.
Seven people were injured, six of them seriously, in the three-car pile-up, the second such serious accident to occur on an Irish motorway in three weeks.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) which is currently fitting safety barriers on all existing motorways - except the M50 - said it would be "extremely reluctant" to install the median barriers there.
The authority said a major scheme to provide a third lane in each direction would get under way in the second half of next year, and the barriers would have to be taken out again.
However, Mr Callely said last night he was "not prepared to wait up to 15 months for median barriers or appropriate safety measures to be put in place. I will be meeting with my officials in the morning, and will be requesting a full investigation. I will be guided by my officials, but something will have to be done immediately; it would be too long to wait 15 months."
Yesterday's accident occurred close to the Blanchardstown exit of the M50 shortly before noon, when a Toyota Camry, travelling in the south-bound carriageway, crashed through the median of the motorway and into the north-bound carriageway.
It ploughed into a Nissan Almera, carrying a woman and three children. It was then launched into the air, and glanced off the top of a Toyota Yaris before crashing on its side into the motorway embankment.
The two occupants of the Camry, a man and a woman, are in a serious condition in hospital. The occupants of the Almera were also seriously injured, with two of the children described as critical.
The roof of the mangled wreck was cut off by the Fire Brigade in order to free the children and the woman. Debris was strewn across the north-bound carriageway of the M50, which was totally closed off to traffic for five hours as specialists from the Garda Traffic Bureau took detailed measurements.
A criminal investigation was also initiated, and is being handled by Blanchardstown Garda station. Gardaí are appealing for witnesses.
Defending its decision not to put up safety barriers on the M50 immediately, the NRA said research showed motorways to be the Republic's safest roads.
Work on the building of a third lane is to get under way in phases starting next year but will not begin at the site of yesterday's crash until early 2006.
The scene of the accident is just two kilometres from the scene of a crash in which three men, one a priest, were killed in a similar cross-over accident in March 2001.
Three weeks ago, five people were injured, one critically, when a car crossed the median on the M1 near Dublin Airport and collided with two vehicles travelling in the opposite direction.