Dear Editor,
In response to Lois McCaffrey’s letter regarding the accident near her home involving the traffic island recently erected, I agree that it is “an accident waiting to happen”. It is doubtful if it was even necessary, as Lois says and it was certainly badly designed. Many farmers, transport people and retailers who need to deliver machinery in this area tried to inform council and RMS this and they did make it a little smaller.
However, they still made the island too high and with sharp edges instead of graduated edges, which may have lessened the impact on a tyre. We have all seen low islands which a truck can pass a wheel over if it is too dangerous to swerve out and back in. We have yet to see how some of our cropping and harvesting equipment will get through there.
Yes , tourism is a great boon to our town but I think many will agree that farming is still the life blood of our community. All businesses suffer when farming is disrupted. Being able to move our produce to market is a vital function of the trucks that pass through here. For one example, when our hay is moving we have trucks taking it out of town in any direction nearly every day, as do other producers.
Since rail no longer is possible grains and livestock are all transported by truck. Obviously the larger the truck the more economical the transport is. There are no other convenient ways to cross the river so if a bypass was made it would involve building another bridge and that would be at great expense. Let’s just get that island flattened and graduated and it will hopefully be as safe as it was before.
Regards Carol Kinsela