Local residents asked for crash barriers before deaths in Eid
For several years, residents of Eid have asked for crash barriers in the area where two women were hit and killed. “We don’t know if that would have changed the outcome”, the Norwegian Road Administration replies.
The inhabitants, among them headmaster at Kjølsdalen Monsterssori school, Thomas Poil Reines Hals, wants barriers between the walkway and the main road, writes NRK.
Hals provided input on barriers as early as in May 2015, before he sent reminders both in 2016 and November 2018. Both he and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration emphasise that they do not know if barriers would have changed the outcome of Thursday’s tragic accident.
The accident happened on national road 15 between Nordfjordeid and Måløy in Eid municipality in Sogn & Fjordane just before 8:30 pm on Thursday. The car supposedly skidded off the road and onto a walkway in Kjølsdalen. it subsequently hit and killed two persons who were out on an evening stroll. The driver, a man in his fifties, is charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Audit in March
According to the Norwegian Road Administration, a security audit was conducted as late as in March this year. The conclusion was that there is a need for barriers on larger parts of the stretch, not just where the accident occurred. There have been several accidents on the stretch, most recently in September. That time it was a case of driving of the road as well.
“We have reported the need for crash barriers in the budget processes, but then it must first be addressed in the handling of the budget, projected and finally issued for tender,” the head of the road department in the local Road Administration explains.
© #Norway Today
