Tough driving laws - Changes are not before their time

So many young drivers have died in the carnage on Ireland’s roads in recent years, it has been a tragic harvest of lives cut short before their time.

And yet, only now, four years to the month after the deadliest road crash in the history of the State, which claimed the lives of eight young people aged between 19 and 23, has the Government finally taken the kind of decisive and meaningful action that just might succeed in putting a stop to the mindless activities of the young people responsible for causing these heartbreaking events.

At long last, parents who live in dread of getting a late night call from the gardaí to say their son or daughter was killed in a crash, will derive a modicum of comfort from tomorrow’s introduction of tough new laws aimed at cracking down on this catastrophic state of affairs. From now on, every new driver will have to display a special N, for novice, plate on their vehicle for two years after they get a licence. Designed to make the roads safer for everyone, it is among a raft of changes announced yesterday by new Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe. And not before time, because, ominously, the announcement follows a 17% increase in last year’s toll of 190 road deaths after a steady decline from 279 deaths in 2008.