Roads in the vicinity of Gaelscoil Cullion are to be gritted by the council in future, following a series of accidents caused by icy conditions over the past few weeks.
The fears of parents were proven well-founded last Friday, when three young children ended up in hospital after a car skidded on icy roads. Although the children escaped serious injury, the incident highlighted the hazardous conditions faced by parents driving to and from the school on a daily basis.
However Cllr Ken Glynn, who has been drawing the council’s attention to the matter for a number of months, confirmed yesterday that the council has agreed to grit the roads to prevent further accidents.
The parents’ association had been lobbying the council to have the roads leading to the school gritted since before Christmas, but were informed that the council was not gritting any secondary roads this winter due to a lack of funding.
However, the parents felt strongly that an exception should be made for the short stretch of road between Mullingar and Gaelscoil Cullion, due to the sheer volume of cars travelling to and from the school and the poor driving conditions.
“There are 70 children in the school, and up to 50 cars go out this road every day. On top of the recent crash, a bus also skidded on Friday morning, and before Christmas a car overturned,” explained Kim Mooney of the school’s parents’ association.
“There were three very distressed children in hospital on Friday. What does it take before this road can be gritted - the loss of a life or lives?” asked Ms Mooney.
Following Friday’s accident, Cllr Ken Glynn renewed his appeal to county manager Dan McLoughlin at Monday’s meeting of Westmeath County Council that the stretch of road be gritted in future.
“I initially raised this at the last Mullingar Area meeting of 2008 back in November, and again at the January area meeting the Monday before the accident,” said Cllr Glynn.
“I was appalled to hear that a parent bringing children to Gaelscoil Cullion unfortunately crashed her car on an icy road which had not been gritted. As many of the children who attend this school are from the greater Mullingar West area, parents frequently use the Old Longford Road, passing St Finian’s, and crossing the railway track before reaching the school.
“I am calling on WCC to immediately put in motion the gritting of all routes around schools, as this incident has proven how urgent this matter is.”
