Road deaths - Action needed as guard drops
Despite voluble protestations to the contrary by Justice Minister Alan Shatter, the perception remains that Garda manpower has been stretched beyond endurance and that, as a consequence, there are fewer patrols not only on the streets of our towns and cities but also on the roads.
After years of tremendous work by the gardaí and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in reducing the appalling loss of life on our roads, the graph has shifted upwards again.
According to the European Commission, 2013 was the second year in a row that saw a significant drop in the number of people killed on Europe’s roads. Unfortunately, this was not the case in Ireland, where deaths rose for the first time in eight years. There was a 17% increase in road fatalities over 2012.
The latest figures from the RSA show that of the 190 people killed in road incidents last year, 127 were in vehicles, five were travelling on bicycles, 27 on motorcycles, and 31 were pedestrians. The number of motorcyclists killed last year is up 44% on 2012. There was a 22% rise in driver deaths and, of those, 80% were male and 17% were not wearing a seatbelt.
Last month, the European Transport Safety Council revealed that Ireland has the highest level of fatalities among women drivers in the EU — accounting for almost a quarter of such deaths in Ireland between 2010 and 2012 — twice the EU average. Ireland also has above-average levels of fatal head-on collisions.
These are grim figures, but it must not be forgotten that behind every statistic there is a real person and, with the sudden loss of life, sadness and heartache for the loved ones left behind. The 24-year-old man who died in a crash near Blarney, Co Cork, yesterday was not just a statistic but a son and a friend. Likewise, the men, women, and children whose lives have been extinguished in an instant on our roads.
According to RSA chairman Gay Byrne, we in Ireland have “dropped our guard” when it comes to road deaths. It was exactly a year ago that he wrote to Mr Shatter expressing concern at the perceived fall in Garda surveillance.
In a letter to the minister, he said that enforcement levels were of “significant concern” to the authority, as the numbers being killed on the roads had increased. “In the absence of high-visibility, high-volume roads policing, road user behaviour will continue to deteriorate and result in further loss of life and serious injuries,” Mr Byrne said.
Mr Shatter rejected the claims, saying that Mr Byrne had used “completely wrong” logic in claiming that Garda enforcement levels have dropped generally and specifically with regard to drink driving.
“Gay Byrne’s logic is completely wrong,” he said. “If you look at the statistics over the last five years, in the context of Garda checkpoints, there has been in each of the last five years a reduction in the numbers detected driving above the alcohol limit.”
But the figures speak for themselves. A year on from that letter, an increasing number of people are being killed on our roads.
Where is the logic in that?
