04 Apr 2026

The Road Where People Die While Money Disappears

Since 2006, at least 57 people have been killed on the A5, with more than 1,200 people injured in crashes along its 58‑mile length. BBC analysis shows that, between 2012 and 2024, the A5 had the highest death rate per kilometre of any major road in Northern Ireland, leading one expert to describe it as “statistically the most dangerous road in Northern Ireland”. In a single recent twelve‑month period, 10 people died on this route, and Assembly members have warned that “56 people have died on the A5 road, and thousands have been injured” while politicians argued over paperwork. For families in Tyrone and Derry, this is not a debating point – it is funerals, empty chairs and lives permanently divided into “before the crash” and “after the crash”.

Yet, over almost two decades of absolutely shocking tragedy, the promised fix has turned into its own kind of scandal. In 2007, the A5 Western Transport Corridor was expected to cost about £560 million. By October 2024, that estimate had swollen to roughly £2.1 billion, according to analysis in agendaNi – an increase of around £1.5 billion without a single kilometre of new dual carriageway open. Put another way, the cost increase alone is roughly equivalent to four to five Strangford Lough crossings at £300–£350 million each – four or five major bridges’ worth of extra money spent on a road that still looks, and kills, much as it did when the project was first announced.

Worse, after years of inquiries and revisions, the project still failed the basic tests set by our own laws. In June 2025, the High Court ruled that the decision to proceed with the A5 scheme was “irrational” and unlawful under Northern Ireland’s Climate Change Act because it relied on aspirational assumptions about emissions rather than credible evidence. The Planning Appeals Commission had already warned that the project would have a “large adverse effect on climate” and that proceeding without demonstrating compliance with climate targets would be unlawful. So, after almost twenty years, the flagship upgrade to Northern Ireland’s most dangerous road was effectively sent back to square one – not by hostile campaigners alone, but by the government’s own failure to obey the rules it had signed into law.

This is the 2nd real obscenity of the A5 saga. We are not simply overspending; we are overspending on delay. The region has watched the scheme’s headline cost drift from £560 million to £2.1 billion, and paid out well over £100 million on consultants, inquiries and legal battles, while collisions, funerals and near‑misses continue on the ground. For roughly the same money that has evaporated in cost inflation and process, we could have built multiple Strangford‑scale bridges, transforming connections across the east of the province. Instead, we have allowed the west’s main artery to become both our deadliest road and our most expensive non‑project.

If the A5 does not force a reckoning with how Northern Ireland plans and delivers infrastructure, nothing will. Any system that can tolerate 57 deaths, thousands of injuries, a quashed project, and a price tag that has swollen by the equivalent of four or five major bridges, without real accountability, is not just inefficient – it is immoral.

The question for ministers and MLAs is no longer whether we can “afford” strategic projects like a Strangford Lough crossing. It is whether we can afford another decade of doing infrastructure the A5 way: with human lives as collateral and billions spent standing still.

Sources

  1. BBC News – “A5 crossroads” (interactive feature)
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/5vdi79qvds/a5_crossroads [1]
  2. BBC News – “What is happening with the long‑running saga?”
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65756340 [2]
  3. BBC News – “‘I lost my twin sister to a crash on a dangerous road’”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgn6g2vkjyo [3]
  4. Northern Ireland Assembly – Debate: “A5 Fatalities” (TheyWorkForYou transcript)
    https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?id=2024-06-11.1.14 [4]
  5. agendaNi – “A5 further delayed by legal challenge”
    https://www.agendani.com/a5-further-delayed-by-legal-challenge/ [5]
  6. Infrastructure NI – “A5 Western Transport Corridor – overview”
    https://www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/articles/a5-western-transport-corridor-overview [6]
  7. BBC News live / report – “A5 road: Court ruling throws long‑delayed £1.7bn project into disarray”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ckg58jggz6mt [7]
  8. Pinsent Masons (Out‑Law) – “A5 dispute ‘a litmus test’ for infrastructure and climate ambitions”
    https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/a5-dispute-litmus-test-infrastructure-climate-ambitions [8]
  9. Fermanagh & Omagh District Council – “A5 Western Transport Corridor”
    https://www.fermanaghomagh.com/services/parks-and-open-spaces/a5-western-transport-corridor/ [9]
  10. BBC / UTV / social reporting on deaths (example reference) – “More than 50 people have lost their lives on the A5 since 2007”
    (BBC Newsline clip – October 2024) [10]