Blame bad driving, not bad roads

FINE Gael reportedly believe that bad roads rather than bad driving habits are responsible for accidents, saying that according to ‘European research’, one-third of fatal accidents are caused by poor surface.

This is really an opinion, not a statistic. One could equally say it is the failure of motorists to take into account road conditions, visibility, other traffic, etc, that causes crashes; the road can do nothing by itself.

What research has actually shown is that any improvements in safety, be it seat belts or better roads, are offset by motorists travelling at higher speeds and taking less care. This is known as risk compensation.

No one would attempt to justify slippery surfaces, but potholes actually reduce danger by forcing traffic to slow down — just like road humps for traffic calming. Everyone knows that motorists drive much faster following road resurfacing.

Contrary to claims made by the Department of Transport and the National Safety Council, it is impossible to prove that a reduction in road accidents results from any concurrent road safety initiatives. However, the reason for the reduction in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities is the 90% decline in people walking or cycling. However, the chances of being killed have quadrupled, and you are now 10 times more likely to be killed as a pedestrian or cyclist than as a car occupant. The increasing reliance on signs and signals to enable motorists to drive ‘blind’ at increasingly higher speeds makes them unable to cope in any unusual or unexpected situation.

Vehicles can travel in any direction at any speed. If such a ‘system’ did not already exist, anyone proposing it would be considered insane.

Objectively, it is amazing that so few people are killed and injured on the roads.

This is the price we willingly pay, and nothing short of phasing out cars and rebuilding the railways can have much effect in reducing the carnage.

Michael Job

Rossnagreana

Glengarriff

Co Cork