Ex-safety chief blames Cullen for resignation

FORMER chairman of the National Safety Council, Eddie Shaw, has blamed comments made by Transport Minster Martin Cullen as one of the main reasons for his shock resignation several weeks ago.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Shaw also accuses the Government of being “criminally negligent” over the lack of implementation of its own road safety policy.

The outspoken road safety campaigner said he took serious issue with accusations by Mr Cullen that he had “overstated” the Government’s failure to tackle the rising level of road deaths in the Republic.

Mr Shaw had consistently argued more than 140 lives could be saved a year if the Government implemented its own road safety strategy.

He resigned to accept responsibility for failing to convince the Government to invest in its own policy on road safety.

He said he was shocked at the response of politicians to his appearance before two Oireachtas committees last October when he said they were using road safety as “a political football”.

Mr Shaw also blamed the Government for the deliberate leaking of a report which recommended the privatisation of speed cameras last August. “If you wanted to derail public acceptance of speed cameras, that was the way to do it,” said Mr Shaw.

The publication in a Sunday newspaper of a private email he had sent to the Department of Transport about the document represented “the final straw”, according to Mr Shaw.

He criticised the department for failing to formally respond to numerous NSC road safety policies.

“We never got a single, solitary written response to any paper. That tells its own story,” he remarked.

Mr Shaw said the Government’s inaction on measures such as random breath testing was directly leading to deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads.

He claimed his resignation was the only way he could make “a mark of respect to those people who had needlessly died and been seriously injured”.

He described the former Transport Minister, Seamus Brennan as “outstanding”.

“From a transport point of view, the impetus on road safety was lost when Brennan left,” he observed.

He said he has been approached by several political parties about standing in the next general election.