In an attempt to reduce the number of road accidents, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has urged the introduction of random breath testing of motorists and a penalty points system for road traffic offences.
He said everybody had a part to play in preventing road deaths. "How do you change the mind-set of drivers? I think it has to be all of us working together. All the contributory factors to accidents must be examined," he said in Dublin yesterday.
Mr Byrne said random breath testing would give gardai greater flexibility, while a points system, leading to possible disqualification by the courts following successive offences, would also be helpful.
He described as "outrageous" the fact that 304 people had been killed on Irish roads so far this year, adding that the number was made up of 127 drivers, 66 passengers, 64 pedestrians, 28 motorcyclists and 19 cyclists.
Mr Byrne was speaking at the launch of the PMPA Safe Driving Challenge, a national competition offering drivers between 17 and 25 a chance of winning one of 50 places at a special "safe driving" weekend workshop with former international rally driver Ms Rosemary Smith. Gardai will also give a demonstration. The competition is being run in association with 2FM's Gerry Ryan Show.
The chief executive of the Guardian PMPA group, Mr Gerard Healy, said: "We remain concerned at the increasing number of deaths and serious accidents on the roads. Only by a change in poor driving habits can this problem be resolved."
Welcoming the initiative, Mr Byrne said anything which made the roads safer and caused less tragedy was supported by the Garda.
The Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, said the significance of training and educating young drivers in the safe use of vehicles was reflected in the fact that road accidents were the biggest killer of people in the 15 to 24 age group. The Government's road safety strategy recognised that the standard of education and knowledge required by applicants for provisional licences must be raised, and that would be achieved through the introduction next year of a theoretical test.
The test would ensure that applicants would have an acceptable knowledge of the rules of the road, risk perception, hazard awareness and good driving behaviour before being allowed to drive on the public roads.
He added that considerable progress had been made in reducing road fatalities over the past 20 years. Against the background of rapid growth in both miles travelled and the size of the vehicle fleet, road deaths had fallen from 628 in 1978 to 472 last year.
Mr Molloy said, however, that unacceptable levels of road accidents, and the disturbing evidence that the rates were increasing since 1994, provided the background for the launch last July of the Government's strategy. It set out a progressive and systematic approach to road safety and reflected the approach adopted by many of Ireland's European neighbours who had achieved significant improvements in road safety in recent years.
It also established targets for reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads by 20 per cent, he added.
