South Meath Driving School

Our brilliant road safety record is fast falling away from us: we were world beaters at the turn of the year. Since unlucky ’13 dawned,  we have slipped back to the habits of eight and more years ago. Up to 2012, road deaths in Ireland had dropped an amazing 59% since the first Road Safety Strategy was put in place in 1998 but the decline didn’t accelerate until the ’07 to ’12 Strategy was invoked and which saw a decline of 50% in those years alone.

In ’07,  338 funeral services were held as a result of road crashes. In the following years, those awful figures dropped to 186 in ’11 and to 162 in ’12. The RSA’s plan is to reduce that figure to 124 by 2020.

However, this year shows a dreaded reverse, there being 15 more deaths this year to date over the same period last year – that’s 62 funerals so far in 2013.

A government task force has been set up in response to this development. The new Ministerial Committee on Road Safety is holding its first meeting these days to examine the Garda enforcement of the raod safety strategy.

The admirable achievement of the last seven years was often attributed to the ‘fear factor’ of penalty points for speeding and mandatory road side breath tests for drink driving. When the private speed camera vans first appeared a few years back, road crashes and speeding offences dropped to an all time low. The vans are distinctive and soon drivers flashed others to warn of its presence. So, is it an enforcement problem or were our good drivers not being so good at all.

Over the last year the number of Gardai in the Traffic Corps was reduced from a high of 1,250 to 900 which opposition parties in the Dail and the great Gaybo refer to as ‘inadequate resources,’ inter alia. I believe there is an enforcement problem. In the past two weeks, I travelled 130 miles south and 80 miles west (return) without seeing a Garda in uniform, let alone coming across a Traffic Corps checkpoint. Then of course, no more than anyone else, I wasn’t exactly wishing to encounter one! But, that’s not the point.

I read of an experiment in Australia. A long stretch of motorway was plagued with speedsters and crashes. The State patrols were few and ‘resources’ stretched. So, a single policeman stood beside his patrolcar inside the hard shoulder for some fifteen minutes at a time before moving progressively about 20 miles. This was repeated for a week. In that time, crashes reduced drastically as did speeding offences. Simply, high visibility policing reminded drivers to keep the law, by slowing down and to overtake more carefully. It didn’t cost an arm and a leg – just a presence of one high visibility policeman and a single car. And now, with all the Garda stations that are closing, should we not expect a greater presence on our roads.  Hey, Ray Butler, tell Leo Varadkar about my suggested Irish (Australian) experiment and save real cash.

Well, Leo is in the throes of drafting the new Road Traffic Bill 2013. The Bill will provide for learner drivers and newly qualified drivers being put off the road if they accumulate just 6 penalty points. Those newly qualified drivers will have to display an ‘N’ for novice plate for two years after passing the test. There will also be an increase in penalty points for speeding, mobile phone use while driving and failing to wear a seat belt.

A further important aspect of this Bill will be roadside impairment tests for Drug Driving. I welcome it as I firmly believe drugs to have been the silent killer on Irish roads for decades.

Learner drivers have nothing to fear with this new Bill. I find that with education and a fitting attitude, young drivers of the morrow will leave their dads, mams and grans in the shade. Ni neart go cur le ceile. Come on Lads and Lassies! Believe. Get those statistics of ’13 rectified. There’s time.