Road safety leaflets to be published in eight languages

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

Entitled Road Safety and the Law in Ireland, the publication will be available in Polish, Chinese and Russian, among others.

The move by the National Safety Council (NSC) comes after the death toll on the country’s roads so far this year reached 53, including non-nationals from Eastern European countries like Poland.

The leaflets are due to be distributed through Ireland’s ethnic press and at seaports and airports.

The NSC, which is charged by the Government with promoting road safety, is also publishing the leaflets in Latvian, Portuguese and Arabic.

An NSC spokesperson said: “We have these leaflets ready to go to the printers and they should be available within two to three weeks.

“There are a number of people in the country who may not be familiar enough with the language to read the English version of the Rules of the Road.”

The Rules of the Road is a separate Government publication detailing the do’s and don’ts of the motorway.

Motorists have to be familiar with the booklet in time for their driving test and are quizzed on their knowledge.

Yesterday, the Department of Transport said the Rules of Road booklet could possibly be translated into foreign languages in the future. Spokeswoman Veronica Scanlon said the booklet was currently being revised.

“They have not been revised since 1995 and it is quite a big project. We are working towards getting that on the website within weeks and we are doing it as quickly as possible,” Ms Scanlon said.

She said there were no plans to bring in foreign translations of the Rules of the Road but the department could reconsider.

Speaking in the Seanad, Fine Gael senator Michael Finucane brought up the issue of translating the Rules of the Road into foreign tongues.

He told RTÉ: “It is timely now that with the expansion of the immigrant community that they understand the Rules of the Road. Many come from different countries where there may be different systems operating and different rules of the road. They might not be familiar with the Irish situation.”