Victim’s sister calls for mandatory driving tuition in schools

AS ROAD deaths in Kerry continue to rise against the national trend, a Listowel woman, whose brother died in a car crash, has called for mandatory driving awareness classes in schools.

Driving awareness tuition is already part of the curriculum, especially at second-level in some countries, and Trevanne Chute feels it is time it was introduced here given our high level of road fatalities.

Ms Chute made a special appeal to drivers to take special care on the roads during the October bank holiday weekend.

She echoed pleas from Sergeant Kieran O’Connell, of the Kerry Garda Traffic Corps, to people to slow down, not to drink and drive and to wear seat belts.

Ms Chute’s 23-year-old brother, Trevor and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Eileen Keane, both died in a crash in Ballyduff, Co Kerry, in April 2006.

Despite the fact that the number of road deaths has dropped nationally by 10%, the figure continues to rise in Kerry.

In 2007, 13 people were killed on the county’s roads. However, so far this year 18 people have lost their lives on Kerry’s roads.

The latest victim was an 80-year-old Dublin man, Michael Mulryan, who died from injuries sustained in a two-vehicle collision outside Caherciveen, on October 15.

Meanwhile, a new road safety strategy for Kerry shows that 43 people died and more than 130 pedestrians were injured on the county’s roads in the past three years.

In the past decade, 134 people have died on the roads in Kerry, according to statistics in the road safety strategy.

Most people are killed in accidents at weekends and into Monday, nearly always late at night or in the early hours.

But, this year there has been a noticeable change in that trend, with many fatalities occurring in daylight hours.

The strategy, aimed at reducing such fatalities, also shows that Kerry drivers have accumulated 8,700 penalty points since the points scheme was introduced in 2002, with three-quarters of the points being issued for speeding.

The second highest offence being recorded is not wearing seat belts, for which 1,400 drivers received penalty points, followed by 615 drivers getting points for using mobile phones while at the wheel.