Overtaking lanes championed at road safety conference

Overtaking lanes are just one measure that could make a major difference in tackling the carnage on the country’s roads, a major conference heard today.

International experts from Sweden, Australia and the US are highlighting methods – including two plus one roads and making roadsides safer – which could be applied in Ireland to lower the death rate.

Harry Cullen, a senior project manager on road safety with the National Roads Authority (NRA), said the two-day conference at Dublin’s Citywest Hotel was focusing on an integrated approach between several government agencies as the best way forward.

“Last year we killed 400 people (on the roads), and we seriously injured between 8,000 and 10,000 people which is an awful of lot of people,” he told the Integrated Approach to Road Safety meeting.

“Everybody remembers the figures for the fatalities but nobody thinks about the amount of people injured, these people are in hospitals, in rehab, their families are very very badly affected.”

He added: “So what we are trying to do with this conference is show that we need an integrated approach, we need to involve a whole lot more agencies, like the Health Service Executive (HSE).”

Mr Cullen said there would be major knock-on benefits for the HSE if the number of people going into A&E wards after road crashes could be reduced.

Following a survey from the National Safety Council (NSC) revealing 90% of buses and 80% of trucks are breaking the speed limit, safety bosses want the Health and Safety Authority to champion safer driving among workers.

One expert, Jan Moberg, from the Swedish Roads Administration, told the conference road deaths had dropped dramatically on stretches of roads where alternating overtaking lanes were put in place.

Mr Cullen said: “The Swedes have done around 1,300 kilometres of this since 1998, they have had a reduction of fatalities of 80% on these roads, which is phenomenal.”

The Irish safety expert, who revealed a stretch of road adopting the alternating overtaking lanes had opened in Cork last year, said: “We have had it opened nearly a year now, we have had no fatalities on the road, which has had a very bad accident history.”

He added: “We are hoping to roll it out over the country over the next couple of years.”

Nial Finegan, assistant general manager of road safety in Victoria, Australia, said the last three years had seen a major drop in the number of accidents in the area.

“Victoria can show Ireland, an evidence-based approach to road safety does work. By understanding what is causing the crashes on our roads, by coming up with initiatives that directly target those, does deliver results,” he said.

Speakers also told the conference that driving with lights on during the day can reduce accidents by a fifth.

Another measure, highlighted by Australian experts at the conference, was 'forgiving road sides'.

This involves the removal of obstacles cars often hit when they go off the road, such as telegraph poles, walls and earthen banks.

“They are saying if you make a tiny error of judgement when you are driving and you go off the road, there is no reason for you to die,” Mr Cullen told RTÉ Radio.

Mr Cullen said the NRA was going to have to act to solve the number of deaths or injuries on Irish roads from people hitting stone walls or earthen embankments.

From the conference, Mr Cullen said the speed camera checks under the new privatised system would concentrate on single carriageway roads and be carried out late at night and on weekends.