COMMENT: We need to do more to preserve life on our roads
Tuesday August 31 2010
THIS last week has seen more tragedy and heartbreak on our nation's roads. Following the terrible loss of four young teenagers in County Kerry last Wednesday, three more people lost their lives in separate incidents across the country over the weekend. There is scarcely a weekend goes by without a fatal crash and often those losing their lives are young people, many of them teenagers – most of them passengers in cars being driven by their peers.
The all-too-frequent tragedies bring home to us all the frailty of life and the sheer despair of those left behind – parents, siblings and friends who will only have a gravestone to visit rather than the treasured and much-loved person whose life was cruelly cut short.
The most recent tragedies happened despite millions of euro being poured into accident prevention by the government and come against a backdrop of a large fall in the numbers of people being killed on our roads.
Two short months ago, the European Transport Safety Council presented Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey with its 2010 road safety award to acknowledge a 41 per cent cut in road deaths. Ireland currently ranks seventh out of 27 in road deaths per million inhabitants.
The government at that stage attributed the fall to a combination of improvements in road design, education and Garda enforcement.
The ETSC also praised mandatory alcohol testing, introduced in 2006, and tougher penalties for drink driving, introduced in 2007, and hardhitting media campaigns But as the past two weeks have shown, major changes are needed if we are to further reduce our accident toll and road deaths.
Now is not the time to apportion blame for the latest accidents, but there are things that can be done which will lead to safer roads and fewer deaths on them.
Among these are the much-talked-about graduated learner driver permits with mandatory lessons from approved driving instructors – this not just aimed at young people, but anyone learning to drive a car. Another is zero tolerance to alcohol – if you drink don't drive – it's a simple enough message and one that should be implemented and rigidly enforced.
Research has show that drink drivers are not necessarily the young, who are often far more careful than older members of our society when it comes to driving under the influence.
There are those who will argue that there is nothing wrong with having a 'drink or two and driving' but there is – we should not do it and those who do should be punished.
For everyone who dies on our roads, there are those left behind trying to rebuild lives that will never be the same again – theirs is a loss that will have to be endured for all of their lives.
We, as a nation, need to do more to preserve life on our roads as well as mourn for those who have so needlessly lost theirs.
