Councils fail on road safety

Local authorities should be legally obliged to adhere to the road safety guidelines set down for roadworks and face penalties if they do not, the Labour Party transport spokeswoman RoisíShortall said last night.

Speaking after it was confirmed that the Health and Safety Authority sent enforcement letters to more than 20 local authorities over their non-compliance with its recommendations, Ms Shortall said under existing legislation a "local authority is not obliged to ensure proper safety standards".

The issue has been raised with the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen earlier this year, during a debate on the Road Traffic Act 2006 in June.

Mr Cullen said he would deal with any legislative changes arising from a traffic signs manual review - which is currently under way - as part of a second road traffic bill, to be published by the end of the year.

Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley believes that additional resources should be given to investigating crashes where road conditions may have been a factor. Currently all crash investigation is carried out by An Garda. Earlier this year the Garda Commissioner announced that regional forensic crash investigation units would be set up in each Garda Division.

However, neither the National Road Authority, the Department of Transport or the newly created Road Safety Authority have a specific crash investigation role. The HSA can only investigate crashes that happen at sites where there are roadworks.

This difficulty was admitted by the secretary general of the Department of Transport, Julie O'Neill, at a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee earlier this year. Ms O'Neill said that while the NRA set out best practice for councils in circulars, noncompliance with requirements in the traffic sign manual "is not an offence per se".

Last September, amid increasing concern about the adequacy of warning signs and temporary speed limits at road works the HSA sent investigators to 104 sites across all 29 of the main authorities. Their findings caused serious concern. The HSA found that temporary speed limits were not being enforced at roadworks, and that some councils were not aware of their requirement to appoint a construction project supervisor and project supervisor for design.

The inspectors' findings have been drawn up in an internal, unpublished HSA report. The HSA has met with and written to county councils where problems have been identified, to try and address them.

The HSA has also taken the view that merely requesting motorists to slow down approaching roadworks or setting temporary speed limits is not sufficient to ensure safety.

Councils are being instructed to enforce speed limits by using road lay-out changes, chicanes and speed bumps where appropriate to control vehicle speed around roadworks.