Plan to cut road deaths unveiled - after two-year wait

THE Government finally published the new National Road Safety Strategy yesterday - a full two years after the previous one expired.

Its publication came a day after Transport Minister Seamus Brennan held a crisis summit to discuss the ongoing carnage on the nation’s roads.

The minister has taken much flak in recent months for the delay in publishing the document, critics saying it had been “gathering dust” while lives were lost.

It is believed the most recent delay was caused because the strategy had to be translated into Irish to comply with the Official Languages Act 2003, which requires state bodies to produce all documents in bilingual format.

The primary target of the new strategy, which covers 2004 to 2006, is to reduce the annual number of road deaths to no more than 300 by the end of that period.

This would represent a 25% cut to the average annual death toll in the six-year period between 1998 and 2003, when 2,409 people were killed in traffic accidents - an average of 401 each year.

Mr Brennan’s department last night said continued emphasis would be placed on tackling speeding, drink-driving and the non-wearing of seat belts.

The strategy envisages that by the end of 2006, gardaí will be observing 11.1 million vehicles a year to see if they are speeding.

In addition, random breath testing is to be introduced, while disqualification periods for offences will be increased.

A network of speed cameras, to be operated by a private company, will be established, while the penalty points system will be introduced in its entirety. At present, drivers can only pick up points for a small number of offences.

The collection of fixed-charge fines will also be privatised, while a “driver testing and standards authority” will be created to ensure better road-user behaviour. Compulsory initial training for motorcyclists may also be introduced.

Many of the actions envisaged in the strategy, such as the privatisation of speed cameras and the computerisation of the penalty points system, have long been discussed but their implementation delayed.

The question now facing the minister is how quickly he can bring these proposals on stream.

On Thursday, Justice Minister Michael McDowell announced that extra garda resources were to be targeted towards achieving the strategy’s goals.

He made the announcement following the emergency summit chaired by Mr Brennan.

The meeting was attended by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, senior civil servants, road safety experts and various relevant organisations.

“(The plan) will transfer significant numbers of gardaí so that the complement of gardaí whose main function is to enforce road traffic laws will be very substantially increased,” Mr McDowell said.