We need better drivers, better roads, better policing

IN response to your editorial (‘Speed kills, so slow down’, February 5), I find the views expressed lacking in thought and, unfortunately, all too similar to the rhetoric we hear from various campaigners like Gay Byrne.

To attribute accidents to excessive speed is far too simplistic. There is no evidence that excessive speed was a factor in the recent accidents on the N7, where four people were killed, the N6, where two people lost their lives, or the accident near Ballineen in Co Cork, where one man died..

The essential ingredients for road safety are the “three Es” — Education, Engineering and Enforcement.

Education: it’s sadly lacking in drivers, native and immigrant. The L-plate fiasco is testament to this, as is the driving test itself. We have, for example, well over 150km of dual-carriageway or motorway with a 120km/h speed limit, yet learner drivers are never tested on them, but are let loose without fear of being cautioned or apprehended.

Engineering: there are far too many hazards on our roads. The crash on the N7 occurred on a road linking two of our largest cities which are still not connected by a dual-carriageway (despite being promised, eight years ago, to be in place by 2006). Had there been a motorway, those two men from Limerick would be alive today.

Likewise, in the Ballineen accident, why do we still have fatal hazards at the side of our roads. Had there been a simple hedgerow instead of a tree, the victim there also would be alive today.

Enforcement: I travel the length and breadth of the State and see precious little garda presence. It is vital the gardaí are out on our roads and use some commonsense in getting errant drivers to mend their ways.

It is entirely possible for someone to drive safely at 120km/h in a 100km/h zone, yet drive dangerously at 80km/h in the same zone. The former will be caught, but not the latter.

It seems the gardaí purchased a job lot of traffic corps stickers for their cars, which can be seen in many places but not on traffic duty. Your editorial invites us to “imagine how effective it would be if a garda on traffic duty had the power immediately to impound a car for serious breaches of speed limits? Just take the keys off the offender and let them get a bus home”.

Well, the gardaí already have that power and can arrest anyone deemed to be driving in a dangerous manner. Why don’t they exercise it more?

Speed cameras will not catch a significant number of dangerous drivers. They will catch unwitting, safe drivers who stray over the limit. They are a sledgehammer cracking open a nut. There is no intelligence in their implementation or use.

So why not some real education of the motorist? Why not engineer roads that are safe to travel on without hazards in the event of something untoward happening?

Why not some serious, intelligent policing of our roads at all hours?

Peadar Gill

Crossafehin

Virginia

Co Cavan