20 years after fatal collision at Lough Salt family appeal for action

By Dionne Meehan

THE BROTHER of a man who tragically lost his life in a road collision at Lough Salt in 2004 is calling for the road to be made safe once and for all.

Prompted to speak out following two recent collisions in the area, Con Duffy said he doesn’t want to see another family go through what his did 20 years ago.

Con’s brother, Declan Duffy, was just 20-years-old when he lost his life. The Downings man was on his way to Letterkenny Institute of Technology, where he was a student, when the car he was a passenger in plunged into the lake.

The incident happened at Lough Salt on the Carrigart-Kilmacrennan Road. Con’s call for new safety measures on the road came after one of Declan’s best friends also appealed for action to be taken.

Declan Robinson, who travels the road every day, was the first to highlight his concerns. He told how recently a car collided with a wall on a bad bend at Lough Salt, knocking it down.

Leaving nothing but a flimsy plastic barrier in its wake, it wasn’t long until a second car entered the water in that exact spot.
“There were four people in the car,” Mr Robinson told the Donegal News.

“Thankfully no one was hurt, but after this accident the plastic barriers were just fixed back up. Weeks passed again and nothing was done about it.

“A best mate of mine was drowned in that lake and my other best mate was driving the car the morning that happened on May 10, 2004. And I know the pain the two families have gone through, and are still going through,” he said.

Highlighting this issue on last Wednesday’s Nine ‘til Noon Show on Highland Radio, Mr Robinson called on Donegal County Council to rebuild the wall and to erect a crash barrier.

Listening to his plea, council staff erected warning signs on Friday.

They also temporarily replaced the wall with large boulders.

Despite this being a quick fix, Cllr Liam Blaney told the Donegal News that plans are in place for a more permanent solution.

“There is going to be a more permanent job carried out very shortly hopefully by the end of August or shortly afterwards.” he said.

“The plans are in place, but if I see nothing happening coming up to the next council meeting I will be highlighting it again.”

But with no guarantee it will be fixed before the end of the month, Mr Robinson asks if another life has to be lost before it gets sorted?
“It is a very busy road and a very oggy part of the road,” he said.

“There is fog on it four out of five nights of the week and there is no coverage. God forbid someone did happen to go in, where do you go to make a phone call to ring the emergency services?

“Declan Duffy lost his life on May 10, 2004, the last thing we want is another tragedy on that lake and on that stretch of road. We know what mess it left the last time,” he concluded.

Despite Con Duffy not travelling on that road since his brother’s death, he agreed with Mr Robinson’s views.

“It is terrible that we are still chatting about this, this has been 20 years of my life, “I haven’t been on that road since, but I hear it is not good and it is a massive issue.” he said.

“I would like the whole thing to be made safe, the barrier on the main part of the road made safe and a barrier erected at the part of the road Declan is highlighting.

“We don’t want this happening to anybody else, you know, what happened to us. It is highly dangerous and the lake is meant to be very deep.
Hopefully by highlighting it, it will help,” he said.

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