School crossing an ‘accident waiting to happen’

Ciara Galvin

SOMEBODY is going to be killed at the pedestrian crossing outside Davitt College in Castlebar. That was the stark warning from local councillor Blackie Gavin at last week’s Castlebar Municipal District meeting. The Fianna FΡil councillor raised the issue along with his colleague, Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne.
The meeting was told that the lights on the pedestrian crossing outside the secondary school were faulty and as a result the crossing was ‘highly dangerous’,
Cllr Kilcoyne said he was ‘not happy with engineering works’, while Cllr Gavin said lining should be put on the road.
“It’s highly dangerous, for God’s sake put lining there, it’s lethal, it’s not good enough,” said Cllr Gavin.
Cllr Kilcoyne told the meeting he would not tolerate the current situation at the crossing.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Cllr Gavin reiterated his comments stressing that the crossing is ‘an accident waiting to happen’.
He said several people have been close to being knocked down, both elderly and young people, and that currently a red light is flashing at the crossing, even when nobody is at the crossing.
“It’s a matter of emergency, it’s only a matter of time. You have Davitt College, Scoil Raifteirí, Lidl, it’s a very busy intersection, you exit the roundabout and you’re on top of the crossing straight away,” explained Cllr Gavin.