Warning that may have prevented 200 deaths

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 former chairman of the National Safety Council (NSC), Eddie Shaw, informed senior politicians in 2000 that 200 deaths from traffic collisions could be prevented each year if it fully implemented its Road Safety Strategy.

It is understood that the NSC wrote to each member of the Government as well as Junior Environment Minister Bobby Molloy and Niall Callan, the chair of the Government’s High Level Group on Road Safety, in August 2000.