Slane's truck traffic 'intolerable'

THREE MONTHS after councillors called for a ban on HGVs in Slane, there are still 1,600 trucks a day passing through it, according…

THREE MONTHS after councillors called for a ban on HGVs in Slane, there are still 1,600 trucks a day passing through it, according to campaigners for a bypass in the Co Meath village.

This morning a delegation of local people is returning to the Dáil to tell the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport about the ongoing road safety problems.

Officials from the National Roads Authority (NRA) and Meath County Council will be at the meeting and the Slane residents will tell them they are living with, “an intolerable situation”.

The village crossroads is a major junction of the N2, the main Dublin to Derry road, and of the main Drogheda to Slane road, the N51.

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The villagers estimate that 200 HGVs an hour drive through Slane during rush hour and statistics compiled by the NRA estimate 6,400 vehicles a day use the N51 at Slane.

White crosses marking the deaths of crash victims at or near Slane bridge have been placed on the wall approaching the stone bridge over the Boyne on the northern side of the river.

Locals say they are “appalled at the complete lack of action on what is an outrageous road safety situation”.

A spokeswoman for the residents said: “Meath County Councillors unanimously voted for a ban on HGVs passing through the village shortly after the last major collision at the end of March.”

Although the council officials prepared a report in response to the motion from the councillors, the residents say nothing else has been done. “Sixteen-hundred trucks pass through this residential village each day, an intolerable situation that has directly caused numerous deaths and made hostages of the community,” the spokeswoman said.

“A bypass remains the ultimate solution to Slane’s road safety problem and the NRA will be pressed by us to give a start date for it. Residents have seen no evidence whatsoever of remedial work in the village to improve road safety and will be asking what will be done to protect the people of Slane in the lead-in to completion of the bypass,” she added.