Black weekend - Road safety must be reviewed

For eight families in three counties, it was a black weekend which saw so many young people become cold statistics in this country’s appalling and relentlessly mounting road carnage.

Two traffic accidents plunged a Donegal community into despondency for the lives of six young people so tragically ended.

In Dublin and Tipperary, families are grieving for two other young people killed in separate road accidents.

The eight deaths bring to 301 the number of people killed in road accidents in this country so far this year.

Ironically, a report published this weekend by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) showed that, on a percentage basis, Ireland had the worst safety record in Europe last year.

The number of people killed on our roads last year was 379, an increase of 13% over the previous year.

Despite educational campaigns and garda campaigns, the slaughter inexorably increases and it is the young who mostly pay the shocking price.

Because road accidents are largely a result of human error, the standards governing road safety, especially for young people, need to be reviewed.