Councillor goes viral for road safety awareness tweet

Urgent action is needed to address pedestrian safety in Dublin City according to Cabra-Glasnevin Councillor Cat O’Driscoll.

A video taken by the Dublin City Council member went viral, with the footage showing a carer being forced to push a double buggy into oncoming traffic as a large lorry was blocking the footpath on Whitworth Road.

The video gathered over 2 million views on Twitter within 72 hours of being uploaded.

O’Driscoll said, “parking on footpaths not only endangers vulnerable pedestrians but also damages the footpaths, creating further trip hazards.”

“This widespread illegal practice is particularly concerning on streets like Whitworth Road, where Vision Ireland has its headquarters, and the area is utilised for training individuals with vision loss.’

The Social Democrats Councillor stated, “as a community, we must prioritise the safety of our most vulnerable road users: pedestrians.”

Don't park on the footpath or you'll push vulnerable pedestrians into traffic.

Disgraceful to see this behaviour. It's rush hour and everyone should get home safely.

Saw this from the bus just now and I'm furious. @GardaTraffic @DubCityCouncil pic.twitter.com/1dQ1LYym84

— Cllr Cat O’Driscoll (@CllrCat) April 9, 2024

A survey carried out by Your Dublin, Your Voice, found that blocked footpaths were among the top reported challenges for people who are caring for babies and toddlers.

O’Driscoll, who was on a bus when she recorded the incident, said “I was furious to see someone in such danger yet not surprised as this is a widespread issue which I’ve been working on for a long time.”

O’Driscoll noted that she and local Green Party Councillor Darcy Lonergan have been working on a poster campaign titled “Don’t Force Them Into Traffic” for over a year with the aim of raising awareness on the issue.

Dublin Commuters said the incident seen in the video is “an absolute disgrace; we need a complete culture shift, nobody can think this is acceptable.”

The Irish Cycling Campaign said the video is “a perfect illustration of why we called for an education and enforcement campaign focused on footpath & cycle lane parking in our Road Safety Authority review submission to the Department Of Transport,” adding “this driver behaviour is habitual, even amongst many professional drivers.”

The owners of the trucks in the video, Stanley Asphalt, informed O’Driscoll that they are conducting an investigation and are committed to ensuring such events don’t recur. 

The company stated they are providing refresher training for their drivers and extended their apologies company extended their apologies for the incident.

In an email to O’Driscoll, Stanley Asphalt said “with the use of smartphones and social media platforms, we are sure you can appreciate that no company wants to be seen in a negative way on any platform so we are taking this incident as an opportunity to learn and improve on our existing control measures for protecting pedestrians and other road users.”

“Once our incident investigation is completed,  we will review the findings and immediately implement any additional control measures as deemed necessary to ensure that this type of incident does not occur again.”

O’Driscoll acknowledged the quick response of Stanley Asphalt, expressing hope that their actions will have a positive impact, but emphasised that this remains a widespread issue

With the video gathering a massive response online, she said she was “surprised” that it was controversial.

“I know the video was going to get a response, but I didn’t expect it to become such a controversial issue,” she said.

In a follow-up video, she said she requested the driver of a Guinness lorry to disembark from the footpath as it was causing damage and disrupting pedestrians, to which she says the driver “laughed in her face.”

O’Driscoll says she intends to address this matter at the next meeting of the Cabra Glasnevin Joint Policing Committee.

A public meeting on safety in Dublin City will take place on Thursday, April 25th, at Wynns Hotel at 7 pm, with the meeting open to all citizens.

2024 has been a deadly year on Irish roads so far, and the issue was investigated on Thursday evening’s edition of Prime Time.

The investigation found that local authorities are “shooting in the dark” when it comes to implementing decisions about road safety.

Owing to GDPR issues, the report found that local road engineering teams across Ireland are not able to view data on road collisions that have taken place in Ireland since GDPR was implemented in 2018.

184 people died on Irish roads in 2023, an increase from 155 in 2022.