Woman whose twin died on a dangerous road welcomes A5 upgrade

A woman whose twin sister died in crash on a County Tyrone road before it was upgraded has said she believes new investment in the A5 will save lives.

Natasha Murray was 16 when a lorry crashed into her school bus on the A4 road in 2008, before the road was improved.

Her sister Nicola lost her life in the collision and soon after that, the stretch of road between Dungannon and Ballygawley received a new dual carriageway.

After that work, fatalities on the road dramatically reduced.

The A4 leads onto the A5, which links County Tyrone and Londonderry, and that road has seen 57 road deaths recorded on it since 2006.

A plan for a new A5 dual carriageway was first proposed nearly 20 years ago and on Wednesday the infrastructure minister announced part of the construction of dual carriageway was going ahead.

John O’Dowd said that work on the project would begin in early 2025 and would be completed on a phased basis.

Phase one of the scheme will be between Strabane and Ballygawley in County Tyrone, where many of the deaths and injuries had taken place on the road.

Reacting to the news Natasha said it was “bittersweet” and has also called for the full route to be upgraded to a dual carriageway.

She said: “My sister lost her life on a road that was very similar and just as dangerous as the A5, it was quickly made safer and that’s why I feel so strongly about the A5.

“Obviously I think the A5 upgrade going ahead is positive, but it shouldn’t have taken so long.

"People have lost their lives waiting for this road to be upgraded.”

Natasha has previously described how she held her sister as people tried to save her life.

She said: “It’s 16 years on from the accident, so Nicola is now gone as long as she was here and some days I still wake up and actually don’t believe she died.

“I was able to walk away from the accident that day, and I never take that for granted, I just try and do her justice by living my life to the full and she is part of my family’s daily conversations, so she is very much alive in that sense. “

The A4 route from Dungannon to Ballygawley where Nicola died was upgraded to a dual carriageway in November 2010.

Since then Natasha and her family have supported the campaign to get a similar upgrade to the A5, a road she can see from her living room window.

She said: “Getting the upgrade to the A4 did bring comfort to me and my family, knowing that it was safer, and I have always wanted that for the families impacted by deaths on the A5.

“The A4 dual carriageway is now a road that is fully equipped to deal with the volume of traffic travelling on it, where as the A5 as it currently is, there is zero margin for error, so an upgrade is long overdue.”

Approximately 1,200 hectares of land, impacting more than 300 working farms would be required for the construction of the full 85km A5 carriageway.

Groups like the Alternative A5 Alliance (AA5A) have repeatedly raised concerns about losing land that has been in their families for generations.

They had called for the existing A5 road to be improved and pointed to the environmental impact of constructing such a large-scale project, as well as unresolved issues about building the new road near potential flood plains.

Meanwhile, police figures have shed light on the cause of crashes on the A5, putting focus on driver responsibility.

Driver error is the most common cause of fatal road traffic accidents on the A5, but it is also the most common cause of fatal accidents on the majority of roads across Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile a previous investigation by BBC News NI found that between 2012 and 2024, the A5 had the highest rate of deaths per kilometre of any road in Northern Ireland.

Natasha Murray said she understood the concerns around construction of a new A5, but believes the success of the A4 dual carriageway is evidence of what can be achieved.

Figures show that there were 37 fatalities on the A4 road in the 10 years before an upgraded dual carriageway opened in 2010.

Following the upgrade and between 2011 and 2018, there were two fatalities on the new A4 dual carriageway

“I’m not naïve in thinking that human error doesn’t come into this," said Natasha.

"But the evidence shows that the consequences of having an accident on the A5 as it is are much more severe," she added.

“I understand there have been objections around environmental and land concerns, but I will always come from a perspective that a life is always more important than anything else.”

The Alternative A5 Alliance said it would comment further when it had full sight of the Public Appeals Commission's recommendations regarding the A5.