16.09.2010 Luas services resume after collision

[on the move]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0916/luas.html

As this apparantly wasn't posted last night, I've put it in here.

The disruption was almost 2 hours long, and I was on one of the trams affected by the disruption. Upon reaching Fatima heading Westbound, a notice of an incident in the affected area was posted on the timing screen. Within moments, the tram driver informed us of the incident, and advised us to leave the tram upon reaching the next stop. A 10 minute walk later, just past the Blackhorse junction lights, a car had collided with a tram, whilst another car was on the other side of the track. A tram doorway was left ajar where the car had collided. The car lost it's roof in the collision. Gardai, inspectors, emergency crews, and security staff were all on the scene, while services were curtailed to between Blackhorse and The Point, which led to lengthy delays. At around 9pm, full services did resume.

The area between Blackhorse and Bluebell is one of the most vulnerable on the route, with the tracks taking up 2 original motor lanes in the middle of the road with no barriers separating them from road traffic. Collisions and near misses are quite frequent, due to the poorly designed layout, which involve 2 long curves and a straight. Often the emergency brake has to be used along the route as cars and trams come within inches of colliding. During construction, it was obvious that such a layout was bound to see incidents and with proper planning, it could have been avoided by building a tunnel, a bridge, or taking it out of the area altogether. Fortunately, there have yet to be any fatalities on that stretch of the route, but the failure by the authorities to foresee this in their design, is going to cause more such incidents, and endanger more lives as time goes on.

[Colm Moore]

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,711338,732847,7
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=swp...58&lvl=1&sty=b

To date, I think most of the actual incidents around there have been cars turning right from the Naas Road onto Davitt Road ending up on the tracks.

Originally Posted by on the move

The car lost it's roof in the collision.

Often, it is a matter of the roof is removed by the fire brigade. Better to write off a €20,000 car than beak someone's neck removing them from the car.

while services were curtailed to between Blackhorse and The Point, which led to lengthy delays.

They need to do something about the extent of these closures. Why couldn't Heuston-The Point services continue?

The area between Blackhorse and Bluebell is one of the most vulnerable on the route, with the tracks taking up 2 original motor lanes in the middle of the road with no barriers separating them from road traffic. Collisions and near misses are quite frequent, due to the poorly designed layout, which involve 2 long curves and a straight. Often the emergency brake has to be used along the route as cars and trams come within inches of colliding. During construction, it was obvious that such a layout was bound to see incidents and with proper planning, it could have been avoided by building a tunnel, a bridge, or taking it out of the area altogether. Fortunately, there have yet to be any fatalities on that stretch of the route, but the failure by the authorities to foresee this in their design, is going to cause more such incidents, and endanger more lives as time goes on.

Admittedly, not popular, they could have taken some of the generous gardens on the north side of the road (while maintaining a privacy zone in front of the houses) on the Naas Road or aligned it through Lansdowne Valley Park (raises different issues).

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...279093820.html

Man hospitalised after Luas crash

A man was taken to hospital yesterday evening following a collision between a car and Luas tram close to the Blackhorse stop on the red line at Inchicore, Dublin.

The incident occurred at 7.15pm when a car collided with a Luas tram at the junction of Davitt Road and the Naas Road. The car driver was cut out of his vehicle and taken to St James’s Hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening.

A spokeswoman for the Luas operators Veolia said Dublin Bus were accepting all valid tram tickets if any travel disruption had been caused.