Motorways are the safer route - Improving road safety

MOTORWAYS are up to eight times safer than Ireland’s inferior national roads. That is not just a statistic but a stark reminder that good road infrastructure is more than just about helping motorists get from A to B in the shortest possible time.

It not just about ensuring that the economic progress we are now experiencing is not confined to Dublin and its hinterland, but is also shared by communities nationwide.

As our report today reveals, building motorways and improving national roads is, above all, about saving lives.

While the decision to begin the process of building a motorway link between Cork and Limerick is finally welcome, there are other areas of the country, particularly in the West, that have been sadly neglected, with medieval-style narrow, winding roads.

That might have been quaint in the days of horse and trap but, with most cars capable of doing well in excess of 100kph, it represents — literally — an accident waiting to happen.

And happen they do, sometimes with horrific consequences, mostly in designated ‘accident blackspots’.

The fact that we even have a name for them is shameful and represents the extent to which successive governments have presided over at least a decade of decay and neglect.

Good roads cost good money, but it will always be money well spent.