Earlier this year two gardai who were left to inspect a car in which a woman and child had just been killed had the terrible experience of finding a second dead child compressed under a car seat.
The ambulances had left, and the officers had to call the other emergency services back to the site. Had they not discovered the child, the car could have been towed away to a wrecker's yard.
Ambulance supervisors in some of the worst areas of road accidents speak of the debilitating effects the accidents are having on their colleagues.
Despite a flurry of interest about road accidents last month, when 29 people died in two weeks, the carnage is largely a non-issue and generally ignored at a political level. The State provides only £1.5 million for the National Safety Council, which has responsible for road, water and fire safety. The council has a staff of only 11.
The Garda iochna this year began to upgrade its deterrence operations to try to force drivers into better driving and safety habits with the autumn introduction of Operation Lifesaver.
The Garda traffic branch, headed by Chief Supt John O'Brien, is currently implementing a major programme aimed at bringing down road deaths. Operation Lifesaver was apparently having a significant impact. Road deaths were down by around 20 by in September compared with 1996.
In the Louth-Meath Garda division, where the operation is being tested, the North Eastern Health Board reported a 25 per cent drop in bed use for road accident victims in the same month.
The results of the Garda operation were just beginning to show hopeful signs when the reduction in road deaths was suddenly halted by a series of horrific accidents in September and October. By last Wednesday the 1997 road deaths figure of 412 was eight more that for the corresponding period last year.
The Garda is testing a number of new methods to bring down road deaths, including the introduction of speed cameras on dual carriageways, where speeding and dangerous driving are commonplace.
The use of the cameras is a proven way of reducing dangerous driving and accidents. Studies in Norway, where speed cameras have been in operation since 1988, have shown that in 64 sites the cameras reduced accidents by about 62 crashes a year.
Norway has some 150 speed camera sites, but there are only 36 cameras, which are switched between sites. The incidence of road deaths is depressingly predictable. It is almost certain that 20 to 40 more people will be killed before the end of the year. Garda and safety council staff can predict, on statistical probability, the times and days on which the worst accidents will occur.
Many factors affect safety risk, including speed, vehicle occupancy, alcohol and drug use, seat belts and air bags, police and ambulance resources and weather conditions.
Despite a greater awareness of road safety, improved roads and the greater use of police resources, the accident rate has remained at consistently high levels. One significant category of accidents here involved collisions between commercial vehicles and cars.
There has been a 35 per cent increase in the commercial vehicle fleet since 1990 and a corresponding rise in the number of accidents between trucks and cars. Almost inevitably, the car occupant comes off worse.
Only about 30 per cent of cars have air bags, yet it is estimated that 1,198 lives were saved by these devices between their introduction in 1987 and 1995.
One of the more depressing features arising from analysis of fatal accidents is the lack of care shown in the use of seat belts for children. It is estimated that 80 per cent of children travel in cars without them.