A school route along the Glebe Road in Coachford has been described as a ‘death trap’, writes Marian Roche.

Cllr Kate Lynch described at a district council meeting how a child narrowly avoided being swept away by a car wing mirror when she was being walked with her mother alongside a double buggy on the road.

Cllr Lynch described the traffic situation in the morning as ‘absolutely frightening’ for the 1,000 or so children who attend school in the area. ‘It was a wake-up call. If she [the child] was an inch or two taller…it’s a death trap,’ she said.

Cllr Lynch described how the road culminates in a cul-de-sac with about 100 houses on it. The day after the incident she went to witness the situation with morning school traffic.

‘I saw one mother running up the road, dragging the kids with her to make it before the next car comes,’ she told The Southern Star.

‘Both schools open at the same time, and it’s like this for a quarter of an hour, or 20 minutes. It’s actually frightening there.’

A spokesperson for Cork County Council said they had received funding from the National Transport Authority (NTA), but this allocation is only for the design of works which is ‘at an early stage’ and construction depends on future funding,  and the co-operation of relevant landowners in the area.

Meanwhile, they will see if signage or line marking can be put in place.

The NTA said there had been ‘regular communication with the school’ and that ‘funding will be available to Cork County Council to deliver the scheme through the NTA’s Active Travel Allocation’.