Five more road fatalities as RSA steps up safety campaign

AS the death toll on Irish roads rose to 122, the head of the new Road Safety Authority has appealed to parents to invest as much in driving lessons as they do in ballet or art classes for their children.

Noel Brett, chief executive designate of the RSA, was speaking as a trainee garda became the 122nd person to die on the nation's roads so far this year.

Trainee Garda Martin Coen, aged 26, of Lacken, Kilmihill, Clare, was on his way to work at Kells, Co Meath, when the car he was driving struck two stray horses on a road outside Navan, Co Meath, on Saturday. Both animals also died.

On Good Friday four Polish men died when the car they were in collided head- on with a lorry in Ballinhassig, Co Cork.

Mr Brett pledged a to step up the RSA's safety campaigns to reduce the number of road deaths by 150 a year, a figure he described as "entirely achievable."

"If a plane came down and 399 people lost their lives we would all sit up and take notice, but last year we killed 399 people on the road and we are almost immune to it", he said. Mr Brett appealed to parents to reflect on how much they are prepared to spend on art, music and ballet classes for their children and to invest the same in ensuring that young people learn how to drive properly.

He said "old-fashioned good manners" and consideration for other road users would be the key to ending the needless slaughter.

"In Ireland we kill 11 people per 100,000 while in best practice countries such as the UK, Norway and Sweden that figure is six per 100,000," he added.

By getting the figure down to six per 100,000 the country would save 150 lives each year. "If we don't, that's 150 people who are alive this Easter who won't be here next Easter."

Mr Brett, addressing the annual conference of the Irish Road Haulage Association in Sligo, said that young males aged 17 to 24 were a high-risk group and that from midnight on Friday to the early hours of Sunday was a high risk time for accidents.

While the RSA did not intend to abandon "shock -horror" advertising, Mr Brett said a new campaign would be launched on April 26 on the theme of Better Safer Driving.