Sir, - Each time I drive on our single-carriageway main roads, no matter how carefully, I carry with me the fear of seeing an overtaking driver heading straight for me, and there will be nothing I can do to avoid a sudden trip to eternity for at least two people! Driving south to Waterford recently and finding myself on the new road at Kilmacthomas, which cost about £20 million, I was taken aback to find it was a single crriageway. I had expected a section of modern motorway like the Arklow bypass, or at least a dual-carriageway road.
Most deaths on our single-carriageway main roads are caused by head-on collisions resulting from misjudgment and the lack of skill required to safely complete the complex manoeuvre of overtaking a moving vehicle. The ability to overtake safely depends on the experience and personality of the driver and there is almost always a risk involved.
It is not practical for driving instructors to teach this skill nor to include it in the driving test. The obvious remedy is to build dual-carriageways, preferably motorways, which obviate the danger of head-on collisions in passing out, which makes it incredible that the opportunity to make a relatively safe dual-carriageway for a little more money was not taken at Kilmacthomas.
On this new, wider and straighter road, some drivers, especially young inexperienced macho males, will inevitably be tempted to overtake and head-on fatal collisions are a probability. I feel that an opportunity to save lives has been lost and I will continue to be apprehensive about sudden death on this expensive but somewhat dangerous road. - Yours, etc.,
O.C. O'Hare, Coliemore Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin.