A WALKWAY which has been secured for pedestrians alongside a ‘terrifying’ West Cork bridge must be put in place before someone is killed, a general election candidate has warned.
Pedestrians run a potentially deadly gauntlet of speeding traffic traversing the narrow road bridge in Enniskeane each day, according to Evie Nevin, the Labour Party’s election candidate for Cork South West.
‘I have walked across this bridge myself,’ she said. ‘It is a truly terrifying experience with huge articulated lorries speeding only inches away.
‘How parents with children in buggies or those who use mobility aids manage to get to and from the village without a fatality is completely beyond me.
‘They are literally taking their lives into their hands.’
Ms Nevin has discovered through a Freedom of Information request that a proposal has been submitted to the National Transport Authority seeking funding for the installation of a pedestrian footbridge parallel to the R586 Castlelands to improve pedestrian safety. ‘I have had it confirmed that the Council have a steel pedestrian bridge in storage that has been recovered from another part of Cork county where it is no longer required,’ she said.
She believes the re-purposed bridge will provide safe connectivity at a pinch point on a busy regional road and urged for the work to be completed without delay.
‘How soon this will happen before someone is killed?’
