A local councillor has called upon Waterford Council to do all they can to reduce the possibility of accidents along a stretch of the N25.
Five people were hospitalised with serious injuries after a head-on collision near Ivy House on Sunday afternoon.
The two-vehicle collision, involving two cars, occurred shortly after 4pm. The driver from one of these vehicles, a woman aged in her 40s, was taken to University Hospital Waterford, as was a teenage boy.
The driver from the second car, a man in his 70s, and two passengers, a man (50s) and a woman (50s) were taken to Cork and Waterford University Hospital’s, where they were all in a serious but stable condition.
The road was temporarily closed with local diversions in place, while a technical examination of the scene was also conducted.
This accident was discussed at the April meeting of the Comeragh District of Waterford City & County Council.
Independent Cllr. Declan Clune says there is clearly a problem - as this accident was not the first. He asked what can be done to make sure that it's the last.
"Do we need to look a bit closer at the Ivy House section of the N25? There has been a lot of serious incidents and worse there over the years. There is clearly a problem there. I want to ask Gabriel [Hynes] what he thinks of it. Does he recognise that there is potentially an issue there? Is there anything that we can do to reduce the possibility of any further incidents."
Waterford Council say they are doing all they can to prevent accidents at the Ivy House section of the N25. Senior Engineer Gabriel Hynes said the accident history of the area is being explored. He says the changing in road alignment has led to a number of collisions.
"We are liasing with the Gardai and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in relation to the accident history at that stretch of road. However, I will advise ye - coming off a motorway, the vertical alignment there is changing a lot because you have super elevation. You're going from a negative crossfall to level, to plus crossfall. The horizontal alignment there has significant bends and all that can factor into the reason why some accidents are occurring."
The Council are set to undertake road surfacing works in the area which has been labelled an accident blackspot. Mr. Hynes gave a timeline for the surfacing works.
"I'm not going to comment specifically on that accident but in relation to all accidents on that stretch of road - we do review them in consultation with the Regional Road Safety Officer. We do get copies of the Garda reports. There will be some surfacing work done at Ivy House in the next four to six weeks."
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