Road safety - We must take personal responsibility

The latest survey on road safety makes for depressing reading with the attitudes of drivers displaying a laissez faire attitude towards the question of safety.

The survey commissioned by the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) reveals a general feeling of a lack of public faith in road safety enforcement. There are low expectations of being caught for infringements and even the introduction of the points system has failed to make a substantial impact on this mindset.

The survey blames politicians, maintaining that they had failed to implement important road safety legislation that had been in existence for many years.

This may very well be true, but it ignores the personal responsibility that every road user bears towards themselves and others to behave safely.

For example, the legislation exists to deter drink driving, yet 17% of drivers were shown by the survey to have driven over the legal limit.

This is stupid and irresponsible, as is the fact that half of all motorists interviewed confessed to using mobile phones while driving.

One thing is very clear from the survey and that is that three-quarters of those drivers believe that better enforcement is the most effective way of improving road safety.