Kickham Street Thurles Scene Of Serious Traffic Accident

Scene of last night's serious accident.

Kickham Street, Thurles, Co Tipperary was the scene of a serious single vehicle traffic accident at around 11.45 pm last evening. It is understood that a vehicle carrying 3 teenage passengers, went out of control on the narrow street, opposite Ely’s Centra Food Store.

(Click on Image for larger picture.)

The vehicle crossed the street’s roadway colliding with a parked car, latter which was completely destroyed, before becoming stationary against a garden wall, protecting a line of terraced residential houses in the area.

Three ambulances together with local police and three units of the fire brigade were quickly on the scene. Passengers sustained quite serious injuries and had to be removed from the vehicle by firemen, using cutting apparatus. The seriousness of injuries sustained are not yet known, but are not considered life threatening.

While the cause of the accident is not known, preliminary investigations indicate the possible blowout of a tyre or this light vehicle coming into sudden contact with a dangerous six inch high, barely visible ‘footpath kerb,’ on the Ely’s Centra Food Store side of the street.

Large trucks passing on this street are daily forced to stop and adjust their cab mirrors in order to pass each other on this street, while emergency services are greatly delayed attempting to conduct their daily business. A planned ‘Ring Road,’ sought for Thurles, which would greatly reduce the traffic flow in this area, has been delayed for over 12 years and now remains in ‘limbo,’ cancelled because of budgetary constraints.

Local residents on Kickham Street had previously complained to their public representatives and to North Tipperary County Council regarding the then erection of this dangerous high kerbing, which presently greatly restricts car parking in the area and forces car owners to now park their vehicles openly on the footpath. Residents concerns, however, fell upon ‘deaf ears,’ despite the fact that this dangerous stretch of roadway also serves to deliver main arterial traffic flow from the Dublin/ Cork motorway, towards the centre of Thurles town.

The entrance to this street, some 300 metres closer to the town centre, was the scene of a serious accident involving a school bus and a motor cyclist, resulting in one death on May 22nd last.