Car crashes into Tubber man’s front garden… again

An 80-year-old man had a miraculous escape last Thursday after a car crashed into his front garden, the sixth such event in 10 years.

Two cars collided outside Martin McGuane’s house at Bunnahow, Tubber, close to the Clare-Galway border on Thursday morning at about 8.20am.
“Each of the six times, a car has landed in the garden one way or another. He [Martin] was shook up about it the last day. He was inside eating his breakfast and heard the bang and the car coming in over the railings,” said Martin’s son Aidan McGuane.
According to Aidan, the family had asked Clare County Council to put up crash barriers at the site some years ago but, he claimed, the local authority refused.
“We are very worried about him [Martin]. I mean he is an 80-year-old man with a pace maker and this kind of fright isn’t good for him. Just two days beforehand his grandson, Darragh was mowing the lawn, doing what any young lad would do for his granddad and it is very worrying because this sort of thing can happen at any time,” Aidan continued.
“We are sick of rebuilding that wall. Mike O’Donnell has repaired it for us five times now in the past 10 years but we have to rebuild it each time because the railing is the only thing keeping cars from going into the sitting room,” he added.
East Clare councillor Pat Hayes said the issue at that point in the road, which forms part of the Killaloe Electoral Area, must be resolved before someone is killed there. “No changes will be made at the site because the Council and the National Roads Authority are saying that when the bypass is finished there will be less cars on that stretch of road and the problem won’t be so prevalent,” Councillor Hayes claimed.
“The issue is that if there is a continual accident black spot, it is time the relevant authority takes actions. There has to be something causing this. Road realignment, traffic calming and a lot of other measures have to be looked at. It is easy to say that this issue will go away when the new bypass opens, but because of the layout of the entrance to the bypass at Gort it will mean that a lot of vehicles coming from Gort, Loughrea, and Portumna will still follow the existing road to Crusheen so the volume of traffic will still be heavy.
“It is one thing if it is a car that comes through the wall but if a lorry or a heavy vehicle came through, that would be the danger. I’d be very concerned about this. We can’t have loss of life to anyone here. There is a duty of care on Clare County Council and the NRA to resolve this issue,” he concluded.