The State Of Donegal

Imperator

Another weekend and another road death in Donegal.

I am just wondering what is going in in Donegal. Maybe it's a selective thing with the news, or perhaps with my hearing but i do seem to hear of fatal road accident and country Donegal mentioned so much more than any other county. I have not been to Donegal in years, but have discussed this with a guy from work who is from letterkenny. He says that it's that the drivers are not any more paticularly dangerous, That the speed demons are of no greater ilk there than anywhere. But he says that the state of the roads up in Donegal is so appaulling that the usual antics of Boy racers has a much greater weight of danger because of the roads and thus so many fatal accidents. I'm only posting because my girlfriend has to go to donegal on a regular basis soon, and im geniunly concerned. Am i being ridiculous, or is it justified??

mike65

I thought things were much quieter in the last year tbh. They went through a shocking spell when 3/4 were being killed every weekend it seemed.

Mike

bazzachazza

Does anyone know of a map with deaths per county over the years cause i was getting the same impression as well. Not necessarily every weekend but regularly.:eek:

mike65

This gives an idea (no longer being updated unfortunatly)

http://roaddeaths.ie/map.php?do=year&year=2007

Mike.

Tipsy Mac

It's mostly after pub closing times that the deaths occur, not much good or bad roads can be blamed for in these circumstances.

caesar

I noticed this too, I definitely don't think is a selective thing in the media.

As another poster mentioned they had a spell where 3/4 were being killed each weekend - or it seemed that way. It could be that we have this in our heads and anytime we hear about another one we just think jesus thats another person killed in Donegal - but in reality it may be just the same as any other county for road deaths.

peasant

Some roads in Doneagal ARE lethal, no doubt about it.

Sharp bends without prior warning, stupid camber changes, hidden dips and humps that get you airborne, zero verges, crater-like potholes ...Donegal has them all.

I really notice it every time I'm up there with the camper. The amount of times I have to throw anchor to avoid any of the above is unbelievable.

Now, with the camper I'm driving carefully to begin with, but I can easily see how a momentary lapse of concentration, bad vision or slightly too much speed could kill a car driver in those conditions...some of them really are unforgiving.

They either need to fix the roads or go over their road signage and speed limits with a fine tooth comb up there.

Wishbone Ash

Donegal is the poorest county in Ireland but has more milage of roads than possible any other county. Therefore there is a lot less money per mile available for road maintenance.

From a purely personal unscientific observation, there also appears to be a higher than average amount of 'boy racer' types.

Wishbone Ash

peasant wrote: »

Sharp bends without prior warning, stupid camber changes, hidden dips and humps that get you airborne, zero verges, crater-like potholes ...Donegal has them all

In fairness, that is part of the attraction of driving in Donegal. I used to love the R255 from Termon to Dunlewy but in the last 20 years, it has steadily 'improved' and is no longer as involving to drive on.

craichoe

I was driving around Suffolk a few weeks ago and i must say the roads are absolutely shocking.

Imperator

I hear waht your saying about it being one of the poorest county's in ireland, It's really terrifying that it doesnt seem to be noticed on a public scale. Correct me if i'm wrong, but i've never heard any high profile TD or counciler or any action group saying on a regular basis, "hey lads, Donegal has to change, we need serious investment over here now". One would think that someone in political office would take this as a political stick, get a cost survey to improve the road network maybe to the standard of mayo or galway where it seems to be quite good relatively speaking. Surely that would provide someone to say, look this is how much it cost Galway to save this many lives, Why cant Donegal do the same?? I'd take notice of that, Oh i know, im so naive

slickmcvic

its a culture thing ....covered at length here!!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055301585

Newcarneeded

I've heard from a friend who's father is a Garda that they send a disproportionate number of new Garda graduates up there now with the specific aim of having a much more visible presence on the roads. So that would seem to indicate that the problem has been recognized by the authorities and something is being done about it.

Also, the Tanaiste is from Donegal. I reckon that her constituents keep her informed of what's going on up there.

With respect to the state of the roads up there though, are the people involved in the accidents not from there? I would have thought that the locals would know the state of the roads and if it's really the roads that are causing the accidents they would modify their driving accordingly.

I've been up there many times and as I don't know the roads I'd be driving slowly because i simply didn't know what was coming next. Donegal being Donegal in the winter i've driven up in pitch black with rain Pissing down, muddy roads from tractors being out, and there are plenty of bends, dips and hairpin turns that stick in the mind. Totally different roads from what i'm used to driving in dublin. But I took it handy and didn't have any trouble. Granted I had to pull in once or twice to let the locals overtake who could drive it a lot faster than I.

Interestingly, having let the locals pass me out, I couldn't, well wouldn't keep up with them because i didn't feel safe driving the roads that were in it at the speed they were doing in those conditions.

I don't have any statistics on the inquests of the road deaths to show how many of the deaths had drink or drugs in their system but certainly when i was socialising out there there were plenty of people driving home after a few pints and that shocked me.

From my own anecdotal observation of the media reports, most of the accidents i've noticed were single vehicle accidents. So for the poster whose girlfriend who's going up there, well she should be safe enough driving around up there if she's at the wheel. I wouldn't be going taking lifts home off people after the pub though.

MAybe it's just that people are overtired in the early hourse not being able to concentrate enough and because the roads there are that much worse and unforgiving and that's what's causing the accidents. But I'd put a few bob on one of drink, drugs and speed being a causal or major factor in most.

Biro

Imperator wrote: »

I'm only posting because my girlfriend has to go to donegal on a regular basis soon, and im geniunly concerned. Am i being ridiculous, or is it justified??

You're being rediculous, Donegal is a massive county. Aside from Cork, I'm not sure of any county bigger than it. Even if someone in Donegal were killed every day the chances would be tiny that she would be. Tell her to drive defensively and she'll be grand.

L1011

I'm a Donegal boy racer genetically, unfortunately...

With the exception of the N15 theres not a decent road in the county - the N56 has to be the biggest joke of a national road in the country, with three miles of constant twists (Gweebarra) and sections of die straight road where you're forever steering right to go straight due to the condition of the road.

Even the N15 isn't the best, I had an 'incident' on it where I grossly misjudged how much gravel there was on the road and had to do some serious evasive action to avoid ending up in a field. This wasn't through roadworks, was right beside a 100 sign when I was doing about 80, and yet there was enough crap thrown on to the road due mostly I'd guess to people going off on to the margins to cause me to temporarily lose traction. Thank feck for reading Roadcraft is all I can say.

furtzy

Spend a lot of time on donegal in fact I'm just back from Gweedore and the driving I seen was appaling. Its the same everytime I go up there. The place is full of boy racer dickheads. Just go into Letterkenny any Saturday night and its a parade of them. Have seen them doing doughnuts etc just off the main street. Even my wife who's from Donegal is appalled at the driving down there. There seems to no policing what so ever

pburns

Haven't been in Donegal since I was a kid but I remember even then that there were a pletora of 'boy racer' cars about the place. Mainly those early '80s RWD Corollas.

Mind you I was in London on Sunday and was surprised to see massive skid marks and circles outside Horse Guards Parade, close to the back entrance of Downing Street (which is well policed to say the least). The boy racer culture is everywhere...

furtzy

There seems to be a more agressive/suicidal type of boy racer up there

Wishbone Ash

Newcarneeded wrote: »

the Tanaiste is from Donegal. I reckon that her constituents keep her informed of what's going on up there

The Taniste represents Donegal South West. The problems seem worse in Donegal North East in my experience.

Newcarneeded wrote:

Granted I had to pull in once or twice to let the locals overtake who could drive it a lot faster than I.

I notice that a lot also. I'm going at what I think is probably the fastest speed under the prevailing conditions and a local passes at speed. :eek:

MYOB wrote: »

With the exception of the N15 theres not a decent road in the county - the N56 has to be the biggest joke of a national road in the country, with three miles of constant twists

The section of the N15 from Lifford to the dual carriagway is quite bad alright but the N56 has improved a lot. Has the section between the Mountain Top and Coolboy been finished?

L1011

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The section of the N15 from Lifford to the dual carriagway is quite bad alright but the N56 has improved a lot. Has the section between the Mountain Top and Coolboy been finished?

Wrong end of the N56 for me! Its mostly the Glenties -> Dungloe bit I'm referring to, it beats the Kilkenny N70-whatevers for "shouldn't be classed as a National road".

"My" end of the N15 - Sligo to Donegal Town and also over to the Twin Towns, is pretty much grand now.

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The section of the N15 from Lifford to the dual carriagway is quite bad alright

Ooops - I meant the N13 (not the N15)!

HJL

I think the more boy racers are because Donegal has a high car ownership per head, as the county is so big and spread out, a car isnt a luxuary up here, its a necessity. No busses going by my house every 15mins!

But yeah, bigger car ownership, bigger amount of boy racer types i guess.

However i travel from Ballybofey to Letterkenny everyday and most days i will see some sort of bad driving/lunatic/inconsiderate driver, but 9 times out of ten this is not a boy racer car.

Lots of bad drivers up here from every genre of motorist. I think 1 out of every 20 know how to indicate on a roundabout.

Roads are bad but they are not the only issue.

eringobragh

I've seen a few blaring some Daniel O'Donnell toonz on the woofer *joke*

Around the border the roads seem to be OK but when you get into the heart on Donegal they seem to get worse.