Editorial: Building tolled motorways in Northern Ireland would have freed up cash for dual carriageways like the A5

The sight of Kate Corrigan holding a picture of her son Nathan, who died on the A5, is a poignant reminder of how deadly that road can be.​

It is a reminder indeed of a number of very dangerous single carriageway trunk roads on which more than 100 people have lost their lives over the last 20 years.

Among the worst were the A1 section of the Belfast-Dublin road between Hillsborough and the border past Newry, the A6 Belfast-Londonderry route from the Moneynick Road northwest of Toome, the A4 Belfast-Enniskillen road west of Dungannon, and the A26 Frosses Road Belfast-Coleraine route north of Glarryford. But the most dangerous single carriageway sections of those four primary routes have since been dualled, leading to an immediate fall in deaths.

Such roads are lethal for a simple reason: they are full of vehicles that are travelling long distances, under the control of drivers who have a reasonable expectation of making good progress yet keep getting caught behind tractors and lorries and so are tempted into the most dangerous manoeuvre on the road, overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic.

Dual carriageways and motorways not only improve travel times, they save many lives.

While the improvements to key routes have been most welcome, they have happened at a glacial pace.

And the politicians who demand upgrades are typically themselves culpable in the delay. Barely any of them advocated tolled motorways, which would have been feasible on at least two routes, Belfast to Dublin and Londonderry, thus helping fund the earlier completion of such expressway roads with central barriers, and so freeing up cash for untolled dual carriageways on other routes.

Stormont’s stubborn refusal ever to consider realistic money raising policies over the last 25 years is a key reason why roads such as the A5 remain so dangerous.