Reckless drivers fly past roadside memorials

SOMETIMES I have to drive from Dublin to a destination approximately 120 kilometres from the city.

Although the journey initially involves driving on the M50 and another national motorway, most of the trip is by road with a 80km-h speed limit.

The experience is always depressingly enlightening in relation to our driving behaviour.

The speed limit, I’m afraid, is regarded by many road-users as being only for fuddy-duddies.

On the motorways people whizz past at speeds well above the limit.

But it is on the roads with the 80km-h limit that you will see the real action taking place.

Having first tail-gated you, they will then pass you out, often on continuous white lines or at junctions while travelling at speeds way over the limit.

And many of them are oblivious also to the recent change in the law on the use of hand-held mobile phones.

To say they display nothing but contempt for other road-users is an understatement.

What makes this behaviour even more reprehensible is the fact that along these roads all of us pass memorials to the victims of fatal accidents, occasionally with fresh flowers beside them.

Anthony Leavy

1 Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13