Advice on bridge sought

The National Roads Authority has appointed specialist British advisers to examine measures to improve the safety of the Slane Bridge accident blackspot in Co Meath, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Mr Michael Tobin, chief executive of the authority, said the advisers' recommendations were expected within three to four weeks.

He was responding to concern expressed by members of the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government about the safety of the bridge, where a two-year-old boy was killed two months ago after the car in which he was travelling was crushed under the wheels of a lorry.

Mr John Bruton TD (FG) said he understood 10 people had been killed in Slane in the past decade; trucks should be banned from the town.

Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain TD (SF) said the NRA's initial response to the issue was "less than satisfactory", noting that £50,000 worth of traffic calming measures for north Slane would not answer the fears of locals.

Mr Tobin said the NRA was against constructing a bypass of Slane. It would be both very expensive and time-consuming. He claimed that, since 1994, 113 lives had been saved through the NRA's low-cost remedial measures.