Solution urgently needed for rural N3 ‘rat-run’

Residents on both sides of the N3 south of Virginia believe it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed, as drivers speed along rural backroads in a bid to shave minutes off their journeys and avoid daily congestion.

At 10am on a Friday morning - well after the school rush - the L3022 running past Munterconnaught GAA pitch is still humming with traffic, engines carrying their N3 momentum.

When the Celt meets concerned locals, cars streak past almost on cue, some heading towards a nearby national school where flashing lights and a clearly sigposted 60km/h speed limit are in place. Locals say those measures seem more decorative than effective, with little impact on driver behaviour.

Further south lies the junction for the Ballydurrow Road - a narrow rural stretch bordered by hedgerows, dips in the tarmac, farms and fields. This is where the local school bus pulls in each morning and around a dozen children board. The same scene is repeated mid-afternoon, but with an added danger: Children must cross the road as cars slingshot past.

Samantha Reilly is one of several parents who now monitor the stop daily.

Rural ‘racetrack’

“I have three kids on that bus,” she tells this newspaper. “They get on just outside my house. And cars overtake the bus while the children are crossing- constantly.”

It is not a new problem. Samantha says coditions have been deteriorating steadily for the past three years, despite repeated phone calls and emails.

“The council says it’s a Garda issue, the Gardaí say it’s a council issue - and the cars just keep flying.”

Eventually, warning signs were erected - bright, official and reassuring - but Samantha believes they are positioned too far from the bus stop to be effective.

“They’re nowhere near where the kids actually cross. They’ve done nothing.”

While the situation is bad most days, she says Thursdays and Fridays are particularly dangerous.

“It’s like a racetrack.”

‘Paying the price’

Helen Embley, who lives nearby, has watched conditions worsen.

She has four children.

“When my older kids used the bus years ago, the roads were quiet,” she says. “That world is gone.”

Her two younger daughters now use the same bus, but each morning feels dangerous.

“Cars are flying past from both directions.”

Parents have adapted by creating their own safety rules. Children are told to stand well back until the bus comes to a complete stop.

“Because cars try to overtake while it’s pulling in,” Helen explains. “They don’t slow. They don’t wait.”

While some traffic is local, much of it spills off the N3, using the road as a shortcut to bypass Virginia - a route never designed for this volume or speed.

“It’s become a rat-run,” Helen says. “And we’re paying the price.”

The danger, residents say, is obvious. A football pitch, five-a-side facility, busy crossroads, local shop, church and school are all connected by a narrow strip of tarmac now expected to function like a major artery.

“There is a fatality waiting to happen,” Samantha says bluntly.

She has already intervened once. One morning, a driver overtook the school bus while children were crossing.

“I stood in front of the kids and asked her what she was doing,” Samantha recalls. “She saw the bus. She saw the children. And she just drove on.”

No apology. No acknowledgement. Just acceleration.

“None of us should have to stand on the road to stop traffic so our kids can get on a bus safely,” she adds.

Independent Ireland councillor Shane P. O’Reilly knows the road well. Driving it, he points out its many failings.

Ryefield Cross, he explains, is a strategic link between the L3024 and L3022, feeding traffic from Oldcastle and beyond onto the N3. That status is both its importance and its curse.

Because it connects to the national road network, funding responsibility lies with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), leaving the local authority with limited scope to act.

“You could hang the signs from car windscreens and some drivers still wouldn’t pay attention,” he says.

Cllr O’Reilly takes the Celt from Munterconnaught, across the N3 and towards the Cross, pointing out where a footpath should have been extended years ago to Maghera’s Páirc MacFinn at Stramatt.

“Letters have been sent. Proposals discussed. Progress has been minimal.”

His fear remains unchanged.

“Nothing will happen until a child is killed or seriously injured.”

The drive continues towards Cloughergoole. The road is narrow and chewed up. Several HGVs force traffic to crawl to avoid collision. Along the route are a primary school, a crèche, farmyards and dozens of homes.

The same story is repeated further south, just off the N3 at Edenburt towards Virginia Road Station - a road scarred by traffic levels it was never designed to carry.

Elephant in the room

Residents are told relief will come with the Virginia bypass. It is the “elephant in the room”, says Cllr O’Reilly, who remains sceptical about timelines.

“Not a chance,” he scoffs at suggestions it could be built by the early 2030s. “2040 would be my estimate, once planning, judicial reviews and landowner objections are dealt with. I hope I’m wrong.”

The preferred route has yet to be selected, and court challenges are widely expected.

“Anything else being said to the public is misleading,” he believes.

Near the primary school in Beherna lives Stephen Farrelly, who measures the danger daily.

“I counted 78 cars over just three kilometres on my way home from work one evening,” he says.

Stephen sits on the school’s Board of Management. The school has 160 pupils and 30 staff.

“We have a duty of care to everyone who attends,” he says. “But with traffic moving at the speeds we’re seeing, we can’t guarantee anyone’s safety.”

The speed limit is 60km/h. Reality, he says, is very different.

“We’ve seen it ourselves - even this morning.”

He points to the contradiction in government policy encouraging children to walk and cycle under the Safe Routes to School programme.

“How is that supposed to work here?”

Noel McEnroe describes evenings as a test of nerve.

“Trying to pull out of a side road is nearly impossible,” he says. “When you do, you’re taking your life into your hands.”

Noel lives in nearby Lurganboy. Cars come off the N3 still carrying speed - 100km/h by his estimate - overtaking on narrow stretches near the school and football club.

“In summer, there can be over 100 kids here,” he says raising an arm in gesture towards St Bartholomew’s Park. “Training, matches, going to the shop. It’s like a magnet for children - but it’s terrifying with the traffic that goes by.”

Earlier in the week that residents met with this newspaper, a serious collision involving a tractor and a heavy goods vehicle occurred. It closed the road for hours. For locals, it was not shocking - just confirmation.

“These incidents will only increase,” predicts Noel.

Residents say the issue goes beyond traffic management. It is reshaping daily life - families confined, older people afraid to leave their homes, childen learning far too young that roads do not slow for them.

“We don’t want vigilantism,” Noel says. “But we can’t let this continue. Something has to be done.”