Road deaths - Behaviour of drivers must be altered

THE abysmal failure of this Government to tackle the horrifying carnage on our roads is unlikely to inspire public confidence in the top level group convened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to reduce the number of road deaths.

That said, however, it is abundantly clear that people up and down the country will welcome meaningful measures to address the tragic death toll.

Despite the Coalition’s promise to get tough with drivers who behave irresponsibly, the first priority of the Departments of Justice and Transport must be to regain public confidence. Faith has been eroded in the Coalition’s commitment to tackle road fatalities by its prolonged delay on introducing random breath testing and its failure to ban mobile phone use by drivers.