asked the Minister for the Environment the number of people fatally injured on the Galway-Dublin national primary route during 1983; the number of people killed on this route in the first six weeks of 1984; if he will agree that on the basis of statistics in recent years that approximately 20 people will be fatally injured on this road during 1984; if he finds it satisfactory that local authorities find it necessary to cut the surface of the road because of its poor surface quality; and the financial resources that he is making available to local authorities to carry out immediate improvements at a number of locations that have been the scene of fatal accidents in recent years.
Written Answers. - Galway-Dublin Road Accidents.
369.
The detailed analysis of fatal traffic accidents which occurred in 1983 will not be available from An Foras Forbartha for some months. As regards the first six weeks of 1984, information concerning entire routes is not readily available for periods of less than 12 months. I am not, therefore, in a position to supply the information requested by the Deputy. On the basis of information available to me, the average number of persons killed each year on the Galway-Dublin road (N.4 and N.6) in the period 1978 to 1982 inclusive was 14.
Regarding road surfaces, a continuous programme of skid resistance testing is carried out by An Foras Forbartha. Local authorities refer to the results of these tests in drawing up their surface dressing programmes each year. Where emergency measures are needed due to sudden deterioration of the road surface, it is sometimes found necessary to roughen surfaces as an interim measure until permanent steps can be taken to rectify the situation.
Road authorities are advised by my Department to continually monitor national roads for the occurrence of accident black spots, having regard to information provided by An Foras Forbartha. Approved schemes for the treatment of high accident locations may be financed from the £21 million in grants being made available to road authorities for normal improvement schemes on national roads in 1984. Similar works on non-national roads may be financed from the 1984 block grant provision of £17 million.