Byrne defends Gardaí as road deaths toll mounts

The shocking death toll on the country’s roads continued to soar today after a cyclist was struck by a car in Co Westmeath.

The latest victim brings to 12 the number of people killed in a wave of road accidents since Sunday morning.

The man, believed to be in his 40s, died after he was hit by a car at Delvin Road, Rathconnell, near Mullingar, at 12.25am today.

Veteran broadcaster turned road safety tsar Gay Byrne described the outpouring of grief over the past 48 hours as “overwhelming”.

He defended the Gardaí against criticism and said they were as helpless as everybody else in the battle against the mounting losses.

Some 217 people have died this year so far as a result of a road accidents – a 17% jump on the same period last year.

“The waves of bereavement and remorse and sadness going out from all of these individual deaths, particularly the young deaths, it’s just overwhelming,” said Mr Byrne.

“Apart from asking people again and again and again to slow down and to be careful about drink-driving, I don’t know what else we can do.

“We have done all the horror ads, we have tried to get to them on television and radio, but there are obviously a great number of people who don’t look at television, don’t listen to radio, don’t read newspapers and don’t get the message,” he said.

The Road Safety Authority chairman said legislation passed through the Dáil and coming into effect in the autumn will see random breath-testing, more fixed speed cameras and increased penalties for hand-held mobile phone use when driving.

But, he said, people are laying blame at the door of the Gardaí regardless of their record on penalty points and road offences.

“If the numbers are up they’re criticised for shooting fish in a barrel, if the numbers of penalty points and summonses are down they’re criticised for not being around.

“It’s a Catch 22 situation and the Garda Siochana are as helpless as everybody else in the situation,” he said.

Mr Byrne, who was appointed to his road safety role in March, said reversing the high death rates would be a lengthy process.

“We are dealing with 25 or 30 years of complete neglect in this area by successive governments. You don’t catch up on that in a week or a month or a year. I said from day one it would be a long kicked-down, dragged-out fight and it would take a long time.

“And, unfortunately, you live in a republic where you have a constitution and legal changes have to go through due process and that takes time.

“It is dispiriting. It is depressing, but all we can do is the best we can in bringing about change and it will not take place in a month or year – it will be a long process,” he said.

Gardaí have named three people killed in a car crash outside Portlaoise yesterday as they returned from the Oxegen music festival in Co Kildare.

Paul Geary, 21, from Mitchelstown, Co Cork, Thomas Frewen, 22, from Kilworth, Co Cork, and his sister, Mary Frewen, 19, died after their car collided with an articulated truck on the main Dublin to Cork road.

Another male passenger remains in a critical condition in the Midlands Regional Hospital.