By Liz Kearney
A secondary school student in Buncrana has narrowly avoided being hit by a bus while
cycling home from school.
The student was cycling past a traffic calming measure on Railway Road recently when
the incident occurred.
“A bus started overtaking me as I reached the traffic calming measure. I tried to get the bike up on the footpath, but the wheel of the bike slipped on the kerb, so I
half fell, half dismounted to the left to avoid the vehicle. The handlebar might have been
less than six inches from the bus. I was really frightened I was going to get thrown onto the
vehicle and fall under the wheel.”
The incident is being investigated by Gardai.

Sinn Fein Councillor Jack Murray said that plans to put a Derry to Buncrana Greenway in
place for cyclists had been delayed due to objections.
The Principal of Buncrana’s Scoil Mhuire secondary school, Ms Evelyn McLoughlin, said
“We want our students cycling to school, and road safety is very important to us. We
encourage our students to cycle for their physical and mental wellbeing, and we want them
to be safe on the roads.”
“This incident was truly shocking,” said a parent. “The onus is on everyone driving vehicles
to see cyclists as people, and not as obstacles.”
New legislation was enacted in 2019 to protect cyclists from dangerous overtaking by
drivers on the road. The Road Traffic Act Regulations introduced a fixed €120 charge and
three penalty points for any driver successfully prosecuted for driving dangerously. In areas
with lower speed limits, drivers must allow at least one meter when overtaking, and two
meters in areas of higher speed.
In a report issued in 2023, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) found that between 2018 and 2022, 7% of those who were seriously injured on Irish roads were children aged up to 15.

Cyclists and e-scooter users in the EU account for the highest number of road fatalities at
47% – despite making up only 8% of road users – according to a European Commission
report in 2022. The fatality rate was followed by car occupants, which accounted for 45% of
deaths.
In Ireland, a total of 41 cyclists were fatally injured from 2018 – 2022, with 1,327 cyclists
seriously injured (RSA figures) – despite the fact that the number of people using cycling as
their main mode of transport here was only 1% in 2019.
A report by the Injuries Resolution Board in Ireland, published in December 2024, found
that cyclists and e-scooter users are 11 times more likely to sustain severe and serious
injuries in road traffic accidents than motorists.
Rosalind Carroll, the board’s chief executive, said that the report ‘underscores the urgent
need’ to protect vulnerable road users and ‘through informed policy and enhanced public awareness.’