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PARENTS HAVE RAISED health and safety concerns after a construction vehicle – a teleporter – involved in construction work beside the grounds of a school toppled over onto a walkway.
Part of the school grounds of Our Lady’s Grove on Goatstown Road, Dublin 14, previously used for children’s activities, was sold to developers for a reported €13 million earlier this year.
A primary school, secondary school, Montessori and daycare centre are located on the adjacent land still owned by the Order of Jesus and Mary.
Parents have maintained their campaign against the sale of the land to developers, who recently began construction work on 80 homes.
The parents have voiced concerns that the development could create road safety problems and congestion issues, as well as limit further development at the school, where places are reportedly in demand.
Fears were heightened this week after a teleporter toppled over, crashed through the wooden boards that surround the construction area and landed onto the pavement of the school access road at around midday yesterday.
It’s understood that the incident happened around the same time as the Montessori was closing and young children were being collected. A number of paramedics attended the scene.
“Imagine if that was a busy school collection time. Any number of children could have been trapped or injured,” Mary Madden, who has a child at Our Lady’s Grove primary school said.
According to Madden, the road that leads to the school building is the same road that is now being used as the construction site access point. This is where the incident with the teleporter happened.
Ongoing battle
Madden is just one of many parents who are fighting against the development through the Our Lady’s Grove Save Our Land campaign.
“When the campaign initially started, I was disappointed that a religious order could sell school playing fields or school grounds,” Madden told TheJournal.ie.
“The health and safety issues were one of our concerns all along but they were never one of my main concerns.
This incident has really made parents sit up and think ‘hang on, this is going to be carrying on for the next couple of years’.
“It’s a small road with two roundabouts, kids are walking, cycling and scooting, parents are driving and dropping off. It’s just madness. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have a different side access,” she said.
A number of cement trucks are reported to have caused “major disruptions” to the traffic in and out of the school grounds upon their arrival last week.
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The school issued a notice to parents which advised children to walk, not scooter or cycle into school.
“I don’t really know how walking to school would make a difference. Maybe to slow things down a little bit but kids still have to walk past the trucks,” Madden said.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has been notified of the incident.
The HSA said that the driver of the teleporter was not injured but was treated for shock.
“As the incident is now under investigation we cannot make any further comment,” the authority said.
Our Lady’s Grove and the developers have been contacted by TheJournal.ie for comment.
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