We take a trip down memory lane and check out what happened on this day in years gone by by looking back at some Irish Examiner front pages and highlighting other events which went down in history across the world.

Your letters, your views...

Your letters, your views...

Voice-activated smartphones and dashboard infotainment systems may be making drivers even more distracted, new studies have found.

While the dramatic fall in road deaths over the past six years has been impressive, we face a harder task to maintain progress under the latest strategy, writes Seán McCárthaigh.

THE Government’s policy of compelling employees in semi-state agencies to decentralise has failed, SIPTU claimed yesterday.

YOU report that “a dramatic downturn in road deaths since the introduction of mandatory alcohol testing has resulted in the saving of 41 Irish lives” (Irish Examiner, December 9).

THE National Office for Suicide Prevention says it will set measurable targets for reducing suicides. Its first report confirmed there were 432 registered suicides last year.

Motorists are being warned of the dangers of eating and drinking while behind the wheel.

IN response to William Campbell’s letter headlined ‘Safer roads: figures turned into fiction’ (Irish Examiner, July 18), I wish to point out that the National Safety Council (NSC) has never called for children to be banned from cycling.

IT would be more accurate if your July 15 headline ‘How our roads are three times safer than 1980s’ read ‘three times less dangerous’.

YOUR lead story claiming ‘our roads are three times safer than 1980s’ (Irish Examiner, July 15) is a textbook example of how accurate statistics can be twisted into nonsensical conclusions.

BLAMING individual motorists for the carnage that takes place on our roads is yet another example of the Government trying to evade its responsibility.

OF course, drivers are directly responsible for most of the accidents on our roads, not Transport Minister Martin Cullen or Gay Byrne, the man he appointed as head of the Road Safety Authority.

THE finger of blame for the carnage on Ireland’s roads has been pointed at drivers, Government inaction, lack of garda enforcement, speeding by boy-racers and drink-driving.

A FIRE chief who has had a phenomenal impact on the service in Waterford has hung up his boots.

NO SINGLE body is promoting fire safety or running educational programmes, despite up to 100 deaths in fires in the last two years in Ireland, a former activist in fire safety claims.

FINE Gael reportedly believe that bad roads rather than bad driving habits are responsible for accidents, saying that according to ‘European research’, one-third of fatal accidents are caused by poor surface.

Appeals are being made to people to leave the car at home if taking a drink this weekend.

STIFFER penalties to tackle drink drivers have massive public support, according to research out today.

IT’S a pity that the coroner who recently issued a warning about wearing dark clothing while walking at night didn’t remind motorists to look where they are going and drive within the range of their headlights.

Motorists taking off for the May bank holiday weekend have been reminded to think safety first.

A MAN in his 20s from Tralee died yesterday in a head-on collision on the Tralee/Castleisland road.

THE Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) is demanding the Government compel all truck drivers to retrofit blind-spot mirrors on vehicles.

A TOTAL of 315 people were arrested for drink-driving offences over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, according to figures from An Garda Síochána.

It is an incontrovertible fact that the Easter weekend can be a lethal period on our roads as, unfortunately, it has proved to be over the last five years.

Motorists are being urged to exercise extra caution this Easter weekend in the hope that road deaths can be kept to a minimum.

The AA and the National Safety Council have welcomed new road safety legislation that Transport Minister Martin Cullen is bringing before the Cabinet today.

MOTORISTS and anyone taking to the sea have been warned to take extra care over the Bank Holiday weekend.

More than 20 people died in Easter time road collisions over the last five years.

ALMOST 20% of motorists who incur penalty points are foreign drivers, although few risk losing their licence or being fined due to the absence of legislation.

THE Government has no plans to reduce the legal limit for drinking and driving, despite EU recommendations that the current limit creates a higher risk of accidents.

THE Government was warned six years ago that its failure to tackle the annual toll of more than 400 fatalities on Irish roads was in danger of becoming a national scandal.

THE motoring public was warned yesterday there are now 35 ways of losing a driving licence.

There is almost a depressing inevitability that this country’s appalling record on road safety will not, or cannot, be improved and we are to face unabated carnage indefinitely unless there is an overwhelming change in attitude to safety.

A survey commissioned by the National Safety Council has reportedly found that more than 80% of child car seats in Ireland are not fitted properly.

POLAND, Latvia and Lithuania have the worst road accident death rates of any of the 26 countries in the European Union, new figures show.

The National Safety Council tonight urged all road users to take extra care following a ’Weather Advisory’ from Met Éireann.

The National Safety Council has drawn up a new multilingual information leaflet in an effort to reduce the carnage on Ireland's roads.

THE standard of non-national Irish roads came under fire from one of Australia’s leading road safety experts yesterday.

IF the Government is serious about reducing the appalling carnage on our roads, it should take on board the no-nonsense Australian strategy, outlined at an international conference yesterday, which has prevented hundreds of deaths.

Overtaking lanes are just one measure that could make a major difference in tackling the carnage on the country’s roads, a major conference heard today.

NO SINGLE body is promoting fire safety educational programmes and media campaigns now the National Safety Council is being subsumed into a new body, a leading safety campaigner said yesterday.

MOTORCYCLISTS are six times more likely to be killed in crashes than other road users, it was revealed yesterday.

Motorcyclists are six times more likely to be killed in crashes than other road users, it was revealed tonight.

An EU study out this week has hit out at Ireland for failing to lower our death toll on the roads.

AROUND 70% of Irish people strongly support widescale random breath-testing of motorists, a national opinion poll revealed yesterday.

Around 70% of Irish people strongly support widescale random breath-testing of motorists, a national opinion poll revealed today.

ROAD chiefs are to publish safety leaflets in eight different languages to halt the toll of foreigners being killed here.

A total of 11 people lost their lives on Irish roads in the last week, it emerged today.