Children put at serious risk from speeding cars

Children put at serious risk from speeding cars

By Maurice Garvey

RESIDENTS want additional measures put on their road – claiming it is a dangerous rat-run that is putting the lives of children at risk.

Some of the residents on Colepark Road and Drive in Ballyfermot won’t let their children play outside due to accidents involving speeding cars.

colepark 20200820 152635 1

Jordan Barrett, hit twice by cars

When The Echo visited on a warm summer evening last Thursday, there was plenty of activity with young children out and about enjoying the weather in the busy residential community.

“My young lad Jordan was hit twice, it is disgraceful. There is traffic everywhere, a lot of speeding,” said Lisa Barrett, a Colepark Road mother-of-six.

“The first time is happened, he was six. It was a learner driver. She didn’t see him. But the second time, he was eight and got dragged under the back wheel. He broke both thigh bones in his legs and has a few little scars.

He was in a wheelchair and out of school for six months.”

Other residents The Echo spoke to told of other accidents, including one involving a 17-year-old who was knocked down on the road.

“It is desperate, they are always speeding on their scramblers, something needs to be done,” said Mairead Keogh.

Around the corner, Colepark Drive resident Damien McElligott admits he is afraid to let his eight-year-old twins play outside.

“I won’t let them out to play because I’d be afraid they would get a slap off a car,” he said.

“They fly up and down the road. We are in between Ballyfermot Road and the motorway at Chapelizod. You have lads doing wheelies on scramblers from one end of the road to the other.

I don’t know how there hasn’t been any kids killed. We need higher ramps, something you would need a ladder to climb over.”

Ballyfermot Cllr Vincent Jackson (Ind) said he will be submitting a question to the city council on Monday week, “asking that the issues of signage, ramps, be addressed.”

“I will look for some action from gardai,” said Cllr Jackson.

By subscribing to The Echo you are supporting your local newspaper Click Here: Echo Online.

TAGS
Share This