Operation Lifesaver, the Garda campaign to reduce road deaths represented a saving of £7.8 million in the Louth/Meath area, according to a report on the initiative carried out for the National Roads Authority.
There was an 18 per cent decrease in serious injuries and a 9 per cent decrease in minor injuries in this area, compared to a control area used for the study.
Operation Lifesaver targeted speeding, drink-driving, and seat-belt wearing. It was initiated in the Louth/Meath Garda Divisional area in 1997, the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business was told yesterday.
Dr Raymond Fuller, of the Trinity College psychology department, said the assessment of the project, carried out for the National Roads Authority, to be published shortly, found there was a significant 4.5 per cent increase in compliance with speed limits in the Louth/Meath area after the operation was begun.
However, there was less compliance at more extreme speeds, over 80 miles per hour.
Figures from hospitals showed there were statistically fewer road victims detained in hospital in this area compared to the Carlow/ Kilkenny control area. While there was no difference found in relative frequencies of fatalities, there was a decrease in serious injuries.
Comparing annual casualty rates for 1996 and 1998, it was found there was an equivalent decrease in fatalities in both areas but there was an 18 per cent decrease in serious injuries in the Louth/Meath area. Speaking about young drivers, Dr Fuller said that as a group they were particularly vulnerable, as was known from the statistics.
He said that in the first year after getting a full licence their risk of accident had a "dramatic drop" of 30 per cent, which was attributable to the driving experience gained.
Addressing the enormous cost of car insurance to young drivers as a group, he said, there were ways of motivating that group "more sensitively".
He also said it had to be realised there was the increasing possibility of the prospect of young motorists driving under the influence of "a whole battery of drugs" and not just under the influence of alcohol. "We are becoming a much more drug-using culture and we have to face up to that reality."
Discussing how accidents can be reduced, Dr Fuller said road users must develop a perception that there was an increased possibility of being caught and penalised if found violating the law in question. "Enforcement must be visible, unpredictable and unavoidable," he said.