Two sisters who died in a car crash on the Dublin-Belfast road in Louth may have believed they were still on the motorway and not on a single-lane carriageway when they collided head-on with another car, the inquest into their deaths heard yesterday.
Ms Tara Heaney (30) and Ms Cheryl Heaney (18), of Tullyneil, Sixmilecross, Omagh, Co Tyrone, were travelling south towards Drogheda when their Renault car crossed onto the wrong side of the road just 300 metres south of roadworks at the end of the Dunleer by-pass.
It collided with a car going northwards and twice spun out of control, killing the sisters.
After returning its verdict, the jury recommended that any future roadworks on the Dublin-Belfast road should have "multiple and ample road signs warning of the position of the road works".
The accident happened on July 9th, 2002, at Monasterboice, just south of the Dunleer motorway, which is now linked into the newly-opened Drogheda by-pass.
The roadworks were due to the construction of the new motorway.
The inquest was told that Ms Tara Heaney, who was driving, might have believed she had passed through the roadworks and was still on the motorway.
A video of the location taken by their family later found just one road sign indicating a two-way flow of traffic.
The yellow line that marks the hard shoulder on the motorway was visible to within yards of the scene of the accident, and it is a motorway marking, said the family's barrister, Mr Noel Dillon.
There was just one yellow triangle road sign with an arrow in each direction to show the road was no longer a motorway, he added. The investigating garda, Ms Nessa Durkin, said "it was a reasonable conclusion", that the driver could have believed she was re-emerging onto the motorway.