E-scooter narrowly misses a two-year-old on Castle Park

The issue of e-scooters in urban areas has been raised once more after a near miss involving one of the vehicles and a toddler by a Tallaght estate.

A mother from Castle Park in Tallaght reached out to a councillor after her two-year-old child was narrowly missed by an e-scooter driver in the green space area by the estate.

Councillor Jess Spear noted that the incident had “extremely distressed” the mother and called for change to how the estate can be accessed.

Cllr Spear said: “An e-scooter driver nearly ran down her two-year-old. I mean, only missed her by a hair’s breadth and she wanted to know was there anything we can to deter the

e-scooters from approaching the entrance to Castle Park estate from the green area.

“If you look at the area, there’s a gate and then there’s a massive gap in the gate for residents to come in and out, but because it’s so large, it actually allows e-scooter drivers to come at speed.”

Cllr Spear and the mother doorknocked around the estate to ask for the views of residents on the gateway and had created a petition on the subject.

The Tallaght Central councillor was informed by another mother who answered the door to them that her young daughter fell under part of the fencing by the estate that was missing and the local representative understood that the council had said that funding was unavailable at the time.

Cllr Spear noted that the fencing was in “awful” condition when she was present at the estate.

She noted that residents felt that the issue of the access point was “urgent” and had called for replacements to the barrier and fencing after “consultation” with the residents.

“We did a consultation basically and people do want to see a change in the barrier.”

South Dublin County Council’s Senior Engineer for Building Control, Taking in Charge, Roads Design and Construction, John Hegarty noted that the council would not install a new kissing gate in the estate, but did list an alternative option.

Mr Hegarty pointed to a previous change in Clondalkin at St Patrick’s Oakwood where a barrier was placed in front of an opening that forced those looking for access to detour around rather than go through in a straight line.

He said: “I have a member of the team looking at it at the minute, so we’re drawing up an option.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.