Road safety: Government must invest

What part of “dangerous” do some drivers not understand? 

When the first hard frost of winter hit the country over the weekend, bringing below-zero temperatures to most areas, many ignored the status yellow warning issued by Met Éireann advising them to take extra care on roads made hazardous by icy conditions.

Despite Garda warnings, it was scary to see how close some drivers were to the car in front of them, putting themselves and other people at risk.

This scenario applies in particular to secondary roads, described as “lousy” by the AA’s Conor Faughnan who, in Saturday’s front-page report, blamed them for over half of all cars failing the NCT this year.

It is no exaggeration to say country roads are held together by a patchwork quilt of hurriedly repaired potholes, some resembling no more than craters of the moon.

As puddles of rain turn to ice, effectively breaking up an already crumbling surface, Limerick lace would do a better job of holding it together.

Despite raking in hundreds of millions of euro a year in vehicle registration tax and excise duty from petrol and diesel, successive governments have allocated relatively few resources to maintenance of rural roads.

Following years of neglect, some cash-starved councils have appealed to locals to carry out repairs on roads in their area.

Having got off lightly so far, it is hard to see how the country’s steadily disintegrating road network can survive another harsh winter.