A Roscommon parish priest has called on Irish Rail to close unmanned level crossings on its railway network. Fr. Francis Glennon of Cloverhill called on the company to erect automatic barriers at crossings on the Dublin to Westport line.
He said the west of Ireland was being neglected by Irish Rail, which had, he said, made great efforts elsewhere in the country to convert unmanned crossings to automatic
There are still too many unmanned crossings on the Westport line, he claimed.
Fr Glennon was speaking at the funeral of Jack Hoban, a farmer from Donamon, whose tractor was struck by a goods train near Donamon.
“Eight years ago, in the same parish, further up the train line, a young woman was killed in her car by a train,” the priest recalled. “Something needs to be done urgently to stop these accidents taking place.”
Mr Hoban, who was 64 and died at the scene of the accident, had been due to celebrate his thirtieth wedding anniversary the next day.
Fr. Glennon said the accident was “tragic in every sense of the word.”
“There has been an overwhelming sense of sadness and shock at the news and it is extremely hard to comprehend. He regularly used the unmanned crossing, as his land straddles the railway track.”
The incident is being investigated by the Gardaí, Irish Rail and the Railway Investigations Unit of the Department of Transport.
SIC: CIN/IE