Enforcement key, says expert

People need to believe that if they break the law in relation to road safety they will be caught, and if they are caught they will be punished, an international conference on road safety will be told in Dublin tomorrow.

Addressing the conference, hosted by the National Safety Council, the former assistant commissioner of police of Victoria, Australia, Mr Ray Shuey, will suggest that enforcement and integration need emphasising in the Republic's road safety campaigns.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Shuey said all aspects of education, enforcement and legislation should be undertaken rigorously if road deaths are to fall.

Commenting on the number of road fatalities in the Republic, which have started to rise again after an initial drop following the introduction of penalty points, Mr Shuey described the Irish regulations as "smoke and mirrors" and said drivers had to believe they could not hide from detection.

Part of this strategy would be to ensure there were adequate numbers of speed cameras, incidents of random breath testing and other methods to detect drink-driving and speeding. Mr Shuey will suggest that information campaigns need to be focused on the offenders.

Mr Shuey is now a consultant for Tenix, a private company which operates the car-based speed cameras in Victoria. Privatisation, he said, has the potential to release officers for use on other policing and even other traffic management measures and has been extremely successful in Victoria.

Tomorrow's conference will focus on engineering, education, enforcement and evaluation and the significant benefits a reduction in deaths and serious injuries brings to the use of healthcare resources.