Comment: When every second counts, Letterkenny’s traffic woes fail us all

The ambulance screeched to a halt and pulled a sharp left turn.

The road we were now on was in marked contrast to the tarmac we’d been on for the first part of the journey.

On September 23rd, my son Finn took ill and had to be rushed to Letterkenny University Hospital. 

The response time after we made a panicked 999 call from our home in Ballybofey was swift. With the blue lights flashing and the siren wailing, we were off to LUH in the back of the ambulance with little Finn - just 19 months old at the time - fixed up to a series of beeping machines.

The journey was all going according to plan until we reached the approach to Letterkenny, where the familiar backlog began.

You’ve heard the one by now of ambulances getting stuck in traffic in Letterkenny. “What if someone is seriously ill in there?” you might wonder.

Well, we were that patient on the way down Lurgybrack. With the Four Lane traffic backed up close to the Dry Arch roundabout, the quick-thinking driver veered off the main N13 road and onto the L114, the Leck Road, to avoid the snake of taillights. 

A bumpy ride, but after a detour we arrived at LUH, whereupon Finn was met with the most loving, kind care I’ve ever borne witness to.

He had a couple of trips back but, a lumbar puncture, a dose of viral meningitis and a bout of pharyngitis later, Finn has returned to his friends in creche again.

The necessity to divert over a rocky backroad to avoid the gridlock got me thinking about Letterkenny’s traffic woes. 

In the back of an ambulance cradling my little toddler and wondering if you’ll get to hospital on time - while he has another episode - boiled the blood. In these moments, particularly when you don’t know what exactly you’re dealing with, every second counts. 

All the while we have a central concrete barrier dividing the Four Lane - something that would surely have been better placed having the shape of an emergency lane of some sort - and high kerbs preventing any movement of vehicles on the outside.  

“It is an example of a desk-top exercise and there is no call for this big concrete barrier up the middle,” the now Mayor of Letterkenny, Councillor Ciaran Brogan, put it in May 2024. “There is an acknowledgement from the people who designed it that it is not right and they are looking at measures for the ambulance service.”

A year-and-a-half later, they - whoever ‘they’ are - seem to be still looking.

Recently, JJ McGowan - the Chief Ambulance Officer in the HSE West - noted that it has been suggested to drop the kerbs between the Cullion Road exit and the Polestar roundabout to enable vehicles to mount the footpath in peak times. Mr McGowan said negotiations were ongoing with the Council and worryingly added that it’s a “difficult piece to get moving”. Much like the traffic.

A series of “active travel” projects are either underway or looming in Letterkenny. Concerns, again, were expressed about the impact of the pedestrian and cycle lane development between LUH and the Knocknamona roundabout on emergency service response times and hospital access.

It feels like the cart has been put before the horse in Letterkenny: no real bus service, no park-and-ride, but a full active-travel system on the way.

Cyclists are scarce - hardly surprising when you look at the climb up the Kilmacrennan Road - but its arteries are overloaded with vehicles. Priorities and all of that…

The emergency services are clearly impeded and impacted severely. So, too, are the people they are trying to access to assist. 

“At the time we had huge concerns around the ambulance access to it, we were given a lot of assurances at that time there wouldn’t be any issues,” Councillor Brogan said in March 2024 of concerns that existed even before the works started on the Four Lane.

I put a series of queries to Donegal County Council’s press office in the last month regarding the route, but they have gone unanswered. 

An invitation has been extended for the Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien to visit Letterkenny and witness the traffic problems for himself. A perfect photo opportunity, but the time for engagement and talks have long since passed. 

It’s an issue that could affect anyone in Donegal who needs an ambulance, fire brigade or An Garda Síochána to attend the scene of an incident.

“Someone could die because of this,” I ventured to a paramedic.

“It’ll take someone ‘important’ before anything changes,” came a rather sobering response.

Finn was lucky, but we can’t keep relying on luck.

For the next person in the back of an ambulance, it could be life or death.