Gay Byrne: Govt row stalling speed cameras

A row between Government departments is stalling the roll-out of speed cameras across the roads network, broadcaster Gay Byrne claimed today.

As the bank holiday death toll reached seven, the angry Road Safety Authority chairman also said some motorists were ignoring warnings about speed.

Mr Byrne said he was outraged that speed cameras had still not been rolled out across the country because of “some sort of argument between the Department of Justice and the Department of Finance.”

He added: “It’s an absolute outrage that we have been delayed for so long on one of the main planks of our safety programme. I wish somebody would take charge of this and sort it out for once and for all.”

He added: “It is angry-making when you are being delayed on very basic things.”

The two men killed in yesterday’s collision between two motorbikes in Lixnaw Co Kerry were David Flynn, aged 36 of Listowel and 19-year-old Owen McGillicuddy of Listowel.

The man who died in a crash at Drimoleague in Co Cork on Friday has been named as Peter Dukelow, aged 38, from Durrus, Co Cork.

The male pedestrian struck by a vehicle in Durrow, Co Laois on Sunday has been named as Michael Walsh aged 43 of Connemara, Co Galway.

Elsewhere a women aged in her 70s died when the car in which she was a front-seat passenger collided with a camper van in Barna, Co Galway on Saturday.

In Ardmore Co Waterford, a man was killed after the car he was driving collided with a tractor and bailing machine

A 63-year-old man was killed after the car he was driving crashed at Tooma, Cloone, Co Leitrim.

Mr Byrne said the latest deaths were shocking given that there was a total of only one fatality during the Easter and May bank holiday weekends.

“It is just awful, it is just appalling we’re all very saddened by it.

“This happens in best practice countries that just when you’re beginning to believe that people are getting the message and the trend is in the right direction, along comes a weekend like this which is absolutely awful,” he told RTE Radio.

Mr Byrne said he didn’t know the circumstances of how the victims died but he said he believed that inappropriate speed was a factor.

He added: “And there was probably a moment of madness or a lack of concentration or aggression or hostility or nastiness or intolerance or whatever.”

He urged people on the roads today to slow down and take regular rest breaks to avoid fatigue.

“There will probably be more impatient people on the road today than on most days and therefore it is ever so much more dangerous.”

He said there were people who simply don’t get the road safety message “and the only way to deal with them is enforcement and severe punishment thereafter to teach them a lesson.”