By Liz Kearney

Gardaí are investigating an incident where a secondary school student in Buncrana narrowly avoided being hit by a bus while cycling home from school.

The student – who asked not to be named – 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,” he said.

“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.”

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 metre when overtaking, and two metres 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.

Over half of all serious cycling injuries occurred between 8am and noon and from 4 – 8pm.

Almost 60% of those injured were from 26 to 55 years of age.

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. This is according to the 2019 Eurobarometer survey.

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 ‘through informed policy and enhanced public awareness.’