The name of the town proved ironic as the deadly impact of the road was quickly felt. The road claimed its first casualty, Straffan resident Margaret Hanafin even before its official opening on 1 June 1956, and four people died in the first major collision on the newly constructed bypass on 31 July. The "Irish Times" motoring correspondent described the road as:”...the most modern piece of road engineering in the country. The criticism had been made that the bypass was crossed by a local road, running from Kill to Straffan, about which the only warning on the main road was one small sign.” The accident rate was a factor in the postponement of the entire Naas road scheme by the Fine Gael led coalition government in August 1956, leaving both the Johnstown and Rathcoole sections of the road in a semi-finished state until the re-election of a Fianna Fáil government.