Always blame the ‘blackspot’, never the driver

YOUR headline ‘Five lives lost on blackspot’ (November 11) highlights the belief that drivers are not to blame for crashes that occur at these locations.

Typically, ‘blackspots’ are bends or narrowing of the road following a long, wide straight stretch which encourages high speeds.

To blame ‘blackspots’ is rather like saying falling from an aeroplane is not at all dangerous; it is the sudden stop when one hits the ground.

The problem is motorists driving too fast, not concentrating and not looking where they are going. We seem to have abandoned the principle that motorists should be able to stop within the distance they can see, leave a sensible gap behind the vehicle in front, that they should adjust their speed to road conditions and anticipate events. It has been replaced with ‘point-and-go’ zombie driving. We are now dependent on flashing lights, rumble strips and massive signs which assume we are half-witted, half-blind, half-asleep and travelling at a lunatic speed.

Costly and environmentally destructive realignments might seem to solve the problem but the result is ‘accident migration’ – the accidents simply occur elsewhere, but this and ‘risk compensation’, whereby safety improvements are ‘used up’ by driving more dangerously, are not understood in Ireland.

The intelligent approach is to slow traffic with chicanes, road humps, pinch points, etc, while maximising sight lines, together with reductions in speed limits, especially at ‘blackspots’ and law enforcement with hidden cameras, financed by fines. However, the NRA, the Department of Transport, the RSA and the gardaí are running scared of the road lobby and the petrolhead masses, so delusions and blame-evasion suit everyone as a denial strategy.

Michael Job

Glengarriff

Co Cork