This summer's heatwave and cuts in the road maintenance budget in Northern Ireland could result in more fatal accidents later this year, an Assembly member warned today.
With the current death toll on the North's roads running this year at 75 people — the same level as last year —SDLP finance spokesperson John Dallat revealed he had written to Northern Ireland Office minister Paul Goggins for an urgent review of the roads maintenance budget.
The East Derry MLA said: "The swingeing cuts in the road maintenance budget was a gross mistake in the first place but coupled with the severe heat damage done to many roads, it has left them with no traction properties and has transformed them into seas of molten tar and potholes.
"The government must find the money which is urgently needed to ensure that the damage done is repaired if the road fatality figures are not to soar.
"government must also review the composition of materials used in road making and maintenance.
"Clearly the melting point, in many cases, is too low to match high temperatures such as we recently experienced."
There have been a number of multiple road deaths already this year. Last month, four young people — two teenage girls and two men in their early twenties — were killed outside Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh after the car they were travelling in with two other young people struck a tree.