Speeding cars a danger at Navan avenue

Residents of Connolly Avenue, Navan, have warned the area is an 'accident waiting to happen' because of traffic speeding along the avenue to avoid tailbacks on the Trim Road into the town centre. The residents, many of them elderly, have expressed serious concern at the dangers and said they feared the traffic mayhem could lead to a fatality. Traffic regularly backs up along the Trim Road at peak times and impatient motorists use Connolly Avenue, which runs parallel to the main road, to try and skip the queue of vehicles. Local resident, Jimmy Dolan, said that they cannot walk down their own street because of the speeding traffic. 'It is getting worse every day. I have even seen mini-buses racing down the avenue to try and overtake the queue of traffic,' he said. 'We had a very near miss recently. My daughter was getting out of the car and another car came flying down the avenue and nearly took the door off,' he recalled. 'We have a lot of elderly people living here, as well as some childen, and it has become really dangerous,' he said. Cllr John Duffy has called for changes to the traffic management plan on the avenue. He said that problems arise during peak traffic hours when vehicles enter the avenue at the top and travel at speed along the avenue to try and pass out the traffic tailbacks on the main road, before trying to make their way back into the queue of traffic further along. 'We need a new traffic management plan to be put in place for this area. Some of the suggestions being proffered by residents would involve the closure of the existing entrances/exits at both ends and the construction of a single entrance/exit in the centre, with space at both ends of the avenue for cars turning. Such a design would certainly eliminate the main source of this problem,' he said. He called on Navan Town Council to investigate the problem. 'It requires urgent attention,' he insisted.