A5 road: Public inquiry resumes as families speak of crash devastation

A family recently bereaved by a crash on the A5 have backed calls to make the road safer as a public inquiry resumes into a proposed major upgrade.

Julia McSorley was one of three members of the same family who died in crash on the route in County Tyrone last month.

Her daughter, Julie McGeehan, said the A5 was "not fit for purpose" and "too many people have lost their lives".

More than 50 people have been killed on the route between Londonderry and the Irish border at Aughnacloy since 2006.

Relatives of other A5 crash victims have described the road as "the most dangerous in Ireland" and have long campaigned for safety improvements.

The public inquiry is examining the proposals for a new dual carriageway along the route of the A5.

The project was first announced in 2007 but the scheme has been beset by funding issues and legal challenges.

It would be the single largest road scheme ever undertaken in Northern Ireland, involving 85km (53 miles) of new trunk road, with the most recent cost estimate of £1.6bn.

There were 10 fatalities along the road between October 2021 and October 2022, according to police statistics.

Last month 75-year-old Julia McSorley died alongside her nephew and niece, Dan and Christine McKane in a collision near Aughnacloy.

Julia McSorley's daughter said the impact on the family had been devastating and they were determined to help the A5 upgrade campaign.

"This road is not fit for purpose anymore, it's not safe," Julie McGeehan said.

"I just want them to stop talking about doing the road now, I just want them to start building the road. There's been enough talk since 2007."

Last Tuesday hundreds of people, including families who have lost loved ones, attended a meeting in Omagh to hear demands for the long-delayed upgrade of the road to be completed.

In the audience were Marie and Noel O'Brien, whose daughter Caoimhe O'Brien was killed in a crash on the road between Londonderry and Strabane in October 2016.

They told BBC News NI that they believed people who supported the upgrade scheme would show up to the public inquiry in large numbers.

Marie O'Brien said people had not attended earlier inquiries as they did not know about them.

"Everybody is now aware of it and the support we had on Tuesday night and from what I seen everybody there will be attending the public inquiry and supporting the people who've lost people on the A5," she said.

"So they have to sit up and listen this time. I think before it was only objectors attending it but they'll get a shock this time."

Her husband, Noel, said: "Every person in this part of the world should attend that meeting and show their support before another fatality is caused on that road because this is the most dangerous road in Ireland."

The Rev Stephen Skuce from the Methodist Church said he knew of multiple families who had lost loved ones on the road.

"Is it the most dangerous road in Ireland? Well, it's certainly up there and we have known that for years," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

"This is a life and death issue and the longer we are unable to address this, the more people will lose their lives."

The proposal to upgrade the A5 has faced opposition, including from the campaign group Alternative A5 Alliance (AA5A).

The group - made up of farmers, landowners and others with an interest in the County Tyrone area - has said that while the improvement and upgrade of the existing A5 has long been needed, it opposes the compulsory purchase of land to construct the road.

It has also raised environmental issues about the project.

In a statement it said it "contends that there are more proportionate alternatives" and these should have been fully appraised and costed.

"As residents of County Tyrone our supporters are acutely conscious of the road safety and regional economic issues involved," the statement read.

However, the group said that "a consequence of the promotion of a new dual carriageway" from 2007 onwards has been that "the plans that were in hand to upgrade the existing A5 were shelved so that there has been little upgrade or improvement to the road since then".

It added: "The Alliance continues to engage with the inquiry and statutory processes laid down for the consideration of road schemes of this nature."

Their last legal challenge, in 2018, resulted in the Department for Infrastructure quashing plans to proceed.

The Planning Appeals Commission public inquiry previously recommended that further work be carried out to assess flood risk and alternatives to the proposed scheme.

Relatives of crash victims were in the audience as the public inquiry resumed at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh.

Reopening the inquiry, the commissioner Gareth Kerr said: "We are painfully aware that the A5 scheme has been trapped for more than a decade in a cycle of information gathering, public consultation and abortive decision making.

"We intend to present the department with clear, robust recommendations on all key issues so that it can make and implement firm decisions and bring this saga to an end.

"On the final day, I will indicate approximately when we expect to deliver our report to the department."

The inquiry will examine an updated environmental statement, the traffic model, climate and air quality.

Further sessions this week include discussions about habitats reports, landscape and visual effects, flood risk and the impact on the agricultural industry and local business.

After a one-week break, the inquiry will move to the Omagh Enterprise Centre in the Gortrush Industrial Estate from 30 May to 2 June.

It will examine the justification for the scheme including road safety, north-south links and journey times, an economic appraisal including funding of the scheme and alternatives to the dual carriageway.