A New Culture of Safety on our Roads Must be a Priority

Following a year of unprecedented carnage on our roads the time has come when various agencies and government departments must combine forces to bring our road deaths to a much lower level. Following the introduction of the Penalty Points system our road death numbers fell but as soon as it became obvious that the chance of actually incurring penalty points was extremely low the number of deaths has grown.

We all want safety on our roads and I am sure that all political parties will assist in whatever it takes to introduce a culture of responsible driving on our roads. We have seen cultural change in our attitude to smoking, now let us seriously address our driving culture.
We need more Garda Resources of manpower and technology to enforce existing legislation
A reexamination of the whole Driving Test method including a shortening of the waiting time
The realistic introduction of speed cameras must be implemented
A system where a person who fails their driving test is allowed to drive home needs to be examined.
A system where it becomes dangerous to try to keep to the legal speed limit on our main roads must be questioned
A system where it takes years to implement adequate speed limits outside schools needs to be updated
A system where “bull Bars”, which can be terminal to a pedestrian in even a minor collision, are allowable but the absence of the county name on your number plate leads to failure of NCTE


Almost 400 people lost their lives on our roads last year – more than one per day and this does not include the hundreds injured and maimed. The number of families affected is staggering and the time has come when the safety on our roads must become a major priority of the government.


Richard Daly