Many lives have been saved on the roads by much safer vehicles and improved roads, notes Patrick Logue on the NRA report.
There's been a continuing fall in the number of fatalities on our roads over the last 10 years, long before the idea of penalty points for Irish motorists was first mooted.
This steady decline in fatalities coincides with a dramatic rise in the number of cars on our roads. In the 1990s, when the number of vehicles steadily rose to unprecedented levels, road deaths hovered in the 400s, peaking at 478 in 1990 and falling to 413 in 1999.
In the 10 years from 1993 to 2002 the number of reported fatal crashes decreased by 12 per cent, while over the same period the number of licensed vehicles has increased by 61 per cent from 1,151,000 in 1993, to 1,850,000 last year. In real terms, the number of road deaths has decreased at a greater rate than flat year-on-year comparisons reveal. Even taking penalty points out of the equation, the number of road deaths year-on-year fell from 431 in 1993 to 411 in 2001, before the introduction of the points system. Over the same period, the number of registered vehicles on our roads jumped by 619,000.
Part of the reduction in fatalities must also be attributed to dramatic improvements in car safety over this period. Airbags and anti-lock brakes are now common on even small city- cars.
The road network, despite the constant criticism, has also improved. It's estimated that you are 65 per cent less likely to have an accident on a motorway than on a two-lane national route. If you do have an accident, it's 75 per cent less likely to be fatal if on a motorway than on a national route.
With Government plans to link Dublin to Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and the Border with motorways or high-quality dual carriageways, statistics like these would suggest more lives are likely to be saved in the future.
All this is not to take from the penalty points system, which marks its first anniversary this month. With the exception of last year and this, annual road death figures have not dipped below 400 since 1986.
The NRA report confirms that the introduction of penalty points had a direct and positive effect in saving of lives. In a year that saw their introduction for speeding offences, the first two months of their operation, November and December 2002, provided the most significant reductions in fatalities to see a year-on-year reduction of 35.
Many lives have been saved since October 31st, 2002 and the Department of Transport claims more than 66,000 motorists have received penalty points so far. Only three people have notched up 10 points, two shy of the 12 needed for disqualification. Details contained in the report show why penalty points have worked. Single vehicle accidents, involving no other road user, were the most common type of fatal accident in 2002. According to the NRA, this type of accident is usually associated with excess speed and/or drink driving.
Driver error was cited as the main contributing factor in 86 per cent of all accidents last year. This statistic should hammer home the importance of punishing errant drivers and the equal importance of more effective driver training.
From the New Year, motorists face new offences, punishable by penalty points, including careless driving, dangerous overtaking and the use of handheld mobile phones while driving. Careless driving will incur two penalty points, and five points if convicted in court, as will the offence of dangerous overtaking. Mobile phone offences will carry a single penalty point and a fine, or three penalty points if convicted in court.
Again the NRA report seems to support this expansion. While excessive speed was noted as the main contributory action in 10.9 per cent of two-vehicle collisions, 17.4 per cent were deemed to be caused by a driver travelling on the wrong side of the road and 6.1 per cent caused by improper overtaking.The annual NRA Road Accident facts will no doubt make interesting reading for those responsible for mapping future road safety strategies. They can take some solace on how far we have come.
The Government's Road to Safety 1998 - 2002 strategy aimed to reduce road accident deaths by 20 per cent by last year. It also aimed to achieve a similar reduction in the number of serious injuries from road accidents. These targets have been achieved.
Details of a new strategy, for the period 2003 to 2005, will soon be unveiled by the Department of Transport. The strategy is being developed by the High Level Group for Road Safety, comprising the Departments of Transport and Environment, the NRA, An Garda Síochána, the National Safety Council, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, and local authorities. This group must not rest on its laurels and let the effectiveness of the penalty points system lose its effectiveness on the driving habits of the general public.
Earlier this week a study conducted in Dublin's Mater Hospital showed there had been a 28 per cent reduction in road traffic accident-related spinal injuries being treated in the hospital's spinal injuries department this year.
However, a 50 per cent drop in serious spinal injuries from road accidents during the first six months of the year was not sustained through the second six months, suggesting the punitive nature of penalty points may be wearing off. An expansion of the penalty points system is vital, but so too are better roads, even safer cars and better driver training.