The head of the Garda Traffic Corps in Donegal has appealed for patience amongst all road-users this May Bank Holiday Weekend.
Inspector Michael Harrison has been at the forefront of road safety in Donegal in recent years.
He has witnessed first-hand some of the worst driving and horrific accidents on our roads.
Today he appealed for road-users across the county not to make this weekend another ‘black’ weekend on our roads.
He made a special plea to both and cyclists to be conscious of eachother saying that Donegal has a huge amount of cyclists.
“I can be corrected but I’m pretty sure that, outside of Dublin, Donegal has the greatest amount of cyclists on our roads.
“Both cyclists and motorists need to be more patient with eachother and to give each other that little more space.
“Motorists need to know how vulnerable cyclists are on the road and that many of Donegal’s hard-shoulders are not design for cycling on.
“Having said that cyclists must also respect the fact that they are not the only ones on the road and must not cycle in the middle of the road.
Donegal County Council Road Safety Offcier Brian O’Donnell. (North West Newspix)
“We need more respect and patience among these two groups,” he said.
So far four people have been killed on Donegal’s roads this year but the number of serious and non-serious injury-related crashes is down.
Inspector Harrison warned that extra Garda checkpoints will be on the county’s roads this weekend.
And he advised people to observe the main safety factors including speed, not using mobile phones, wearing seatbelts and not drinking and driving or face the consequences.
“We will be out there and sooner rather than later if people continue to ignore these factors, they will be caught and they will pay the penalty,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Donegal’s Road Safety Officer, Brian O’Donnell.
