Despite graphic TV campaigns, deadly road behaviour hasn't changed, saysPatrick Logue
It has been said that education is the progressive discovery of one's own ignorance. Unfortunately for motorists, the progress seems to be slow, as evidenced by the continued death toll on the State's roads.
Ignorance of the dangers posed by bad driving still exists despite countless road safety campaigns, ranging from the placing of car wrecks on the side of the road in Co Louth to television images of a young child being cut down by the out-of-control car of a drink driver to strategies, charters and proposals.
Still, the pictures of mangled wrecks keep emerging and the numbers keep rising. In the first three months of the year, 96 people have been killed on the roads, 21 more than in the same period last year. It's estimated that every day 3,000 people die in road crashes across the world. Motorists are not getting the message.
Documentary director Adrian McCarthy witnessed, first-hand, the horror of road crashes during the making of his award-winning production, Crash. But he is doubtful if the programme, watched by 400,000 when shown on RTÉ last year, has lead to a change in behaviour by drivers.
"I have letters from people who say the programme made an impact on them," says McCarthy. "It really shook them up. You think things have taken a turn for the better, but when I see what has gone on recently on the roads obviously they have not.
"The television campaigns are good and I think they're necessary to raise awareness. But with some of the stronger ones people watch them once or twice but then just flick the channel."
McCarthy believes that viewers become immune to shocking images of road crashes. "Sometimes I get quite angry when I see some of the stuff on the road. Then you see the image on the news of twisted metal, the carnage, the ripple that has shattered so many lives. It makes my stomach churn.
"I don't know what the answer is. There's no solution. It's human beings. As humans we forget very quickly. The thing is you never know when you have been lucky."
One of the subjects of McCarthy's documentary, Paul O'Flaherty, was not lucky. He is 21 but has already been through more than many of us will go through in a lifetime.
After months in a rehabilitation clinic in Dublin, he remains in a wheelchair after a crash near his home village of Moyvane, Co Kerry. Paul was a back-seat passenger of his friend's Honda Civic and was wearing his seat belt when the car crashed at a crossroads near Listowel almost two years ago.
Most of the patients beside him in the spinal injuries ward in Dún Laoghaire could tell similar stories having ended up there because of motor-related crashes.
Today, Paul continues to make seismic moves in getting his life back on track. "I got a Ford Focus," he tells us, a big deal in any young man's life but a highly significant step for a crash victim.
Local people raised the many thousands of euros needed for insurance, demonstrating the need for a local support network. He has also had an adapted house built near his parents, which is close to completion.
Paul sees the shocking ad campaigns as "definitely a good thing".
Adrian McCarthy believes the young man's experience should be used to educate others. "You have to educate people, you have to get people at the right age," he says.
The harrowing documentary has been sent to every secondary school in the State. "They should listen to the story of somebody like Paul, listen and learn. Teenagers think they're unbreakable," says McCarthy.
Pat Costello of the National Safety Council, which is responsible for promoting road safety awareness, says television campaigns highlighting the dangers on the roads are "emphatically doing their job."
Attitudes are changing and awareness levels are rising, he says, adding that road safety needs a wide range of organisations coming together. "Education is one of the links in the chain."
However, the behaviour of road users is one link the chain which also must be taken into account, Costello believes.
The NSC is planning a new series of television campaigns later this year and is also seeking to introduce a new resource for teachers to educate young teenagers in secondary school.