How to put an end to carnage on our roads
Yet they have been taken over by cars, lorries, buses and other vehicles.
The roads have been turned into speedways.
They are our new killing fields. (The motorways are a separate issue).
At one time it was possible to travel from A to B in a car at reasonable speed and in safety. Not anymore.
Vehicles now are driven at any speed irrespective of the limits, which are not policed.
Recently I was driving on a motorway at close to 75 mph when I was overtaken by cars and lorries as if I was stationary.
Those vehicles must have been travelling at over 100 mph.
It is a free-for-all.
The greatest absurdity of all is little or no difference between speed limits on motorways and winding, narrow roads which were never designed for motorised traffic.
The net result of this is that hundreds of people are killed and maimed each year.
No amount of exhortation by the National Roads Authority (NRA), by the Taoiseach, or by anyone else, will make a whit of difference.
The carnage on our roads will continue and worsen unless relevant legislation is introduced urgently and policed properly.
I am not advocating that someone should walk in front of a car with a red flag. (Who in their senses would walk in front a car nowadays when it is impossible to even cross the road anywhere without putting one’s life in danger?).
Drink driving could be minimised if conviction carried a statutory prison sentence.
Speed limits which are not properly policed encourage motorists and others to speed.
Air pollution has been ended in pubs, restaurants and workplaces by relevant legislation.
Similarly only radical and relevant legislation can help put a stop the ever worsening road carnage.
The sooner the better.
Micheál Ó Nualláin,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
