Cyclists and walkers most at risk
Yet again, the Road Safety Association (RSA) appears to interpret statistics incorrectly. You cannot measure danger by casualty numbers; it is a also a function of exposure.
Very few people walk or cycle today and there has been a massive increase in car journeys.
There are fewer pedestrian casualties because there are very few pedestrians.
However, the risk of being killed or injured while making a journey by foot or cycle has actually increased considerably; you are now approximately 10 times more likely to be killed or injured making a journey on foot or bicycle than in a car.
This is commonsense. It is obvious that modern traffic conditions have made walking extremely risky, yet while the RSA has stated targets for reducing car casualties, it has no stated targets for reducing casualties for vulnerable road-users.
The RSA blames parents and the victims, but 14-year-olds should be mature enough to go out alone. What sort of a dysfunctional society demands that they be accompanied by a parent every time they want to go outside? Wearing helmets does not prevent accidents. Holland, for example, has far lower casualty rates, yet crash helmets are unknown; nor do you see dayglo jackets there.
The Dutch ride practical, functional bicycles wearing normal clothes. The vast majority of journeys are by foot, tram, train, bus or bicycle; there is a lot less traffic and car parks are few and far between. Quite small children cycle to school.
In my view, if the RSA is going to produce an effective strategy for reducing road carnage in Ireland its members should be independent and free of conflict of interest.
They should be suitably qualified and, in particular, they should be educated in the science of statistics.
Michael Job
Rossnagrena
Glengarriff
Co Cork
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