IN the coming months Garda traffic branch officers will attempt to establish a new model for reducing road deaths. The establishment of a traffic policy bureau, at Garda Headquarters in Dublin, consisting of several officers with civilian expert assistance, will be at the core of the new approach.
As well as directing their own policy, gardai will liaise with road and safety authorities and government Departments, principally Environment and Health, and any other group which has any potential input into solving the problem.
There has been no easing of the level of road deaths this year. In one seven day period at the start of this month 25 people died in road accidents, seven of them motorcyclists, in the Republic and Northern Ireland. The fatal road accidents continued this week. Mark Hall, a 16 year old youth from Ballyfermot, was killed on Sunday morning when he lost control of the stolen car he was driving. Edward Myles (22), from Athy, Co Kildare, was killed on Sunday when he was struck by a car near his home. Yesterday, a 53 year old man was killed when his car collided with a lorry at Mellick, outside Portlaoise.
Another victim this week was Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Offaly, grandson of the Duke and Duchess of Leinster. The 23 year old trainee chef had been injured in an accident near Cashel, Co Tipperary, on May 9th and died on Monday.
Road deaths occurred at a rate of almost one a day in January and February this year. A total of 57 people died and 1,452 people were injured in road accidents in January and February. Virtually the same level of death and injury occurred in the same period in 1996, with 56 deaths and 1,575 injured.
Annual road deaths are remaining constant at between 400 and 500 a year. This level is something of a decrease on the peak period of road deaths in the mid 1970s.
At least 70 per cent of fatal road accidents happen on rural roads and this will be one of the focus points of the new Garda policy bureau.
Gardai have been directing considerable effort at reducing the level of speeding and careless driving in rural areas under the new on the spot system of £50 fines since last October. This campaign was specifically designed to try to impress on drivers the need for greater caution on heavily used rural roads.
Gardai have long recognised that an extraordinarily high level of road deaths happens on main radial routes in the countryside around Dublin and other provincial centres where there has been major suburban population and commercial activity growth without a corresponding improvement in the road system."
Roads which have remained largely unchanged for nearly 50 years are now carrying vastly increased levels of traffic. It is on these roads that drivers and pedestrians face the highest risks.
It is expected that a new campaign to reduce road deaths will include an interdepartmental strategy. It could involve the improvement of road conditions and markings, better emergency medical coverage and targeting of certain dangerous roads by Garda traffic branch officers.
One of the factors motivating the new campaign, apart from the obvious desire to prevent deaths and injuries, is the immense cost to the national economy. Research carried out in Britain in recent years into the financial cost of road fatalities has produced a figure - which is generally accepted by the Republic's National Roads Authority - of approximately £850,000 per death.
This figure has been arrived at as a result of a series of exercises, one of which is called the "human capital approach" based on monetary estimates of loss to the economy from the victim's projected future earnings.
It is almost certain that the drink driving operations, which were somewhat relaxed here two years ago after a campaign by rural publicans, will be strengthened in response to EU directions.
There were an estimated 45,000 road deaths in the EU last year and the Republic is actually in the lower level of the fatality table; worse than countries like the UK and Nordic nations but much better than the Mediterranean nations.
The EU Transport Commissioner, Mr Neil Kinnock, last month called for a series of road safety improvements to try to reduce the level of carnage on Europe's roads. He proposed; reducing speed limits by an average of 5 km and the fitting of cars, with collision warning systems and daytime lights.
Mr Kinnock also proposed the harmonisation of the maximum alcohol level throughout the EU at 50 mg per 100 ml of blood. Mr Kinnock said there was evidence that deaths could fall by up to 40 per cent if this limit was enforced.
The current bloodalcohol limit in the Republic and eight of the 14 other EU nations is 80 mg. Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal have reduced their bloodalcohol level to 50 mg. Sweden operates a near absolute drinkdriving ban.