At least 2,000 lives could be saved annually in Europe if the EU directive on restructuring of car fronts to make them "softer" came into force, according to traffic expert, Prof Murray Mackay.
The directive specifies the stiffness of bumpers and bonnets and provides for some clearance between the engine and the bonnet, said Prof Mackay, who is a director of the European Transport Safety Council which advises the European Commission. These measures would reduce the impact on pedestrians' legs, knees, hips and the head. The directive has been batted back and forth between the European Commission and the European Parliament. The Commission believes these measures should be voluntary, while the Parliament favours compulsory soft fronts for vehicles, Prof Mackay told a road traffic seminar in Dublin organised by the Association of Consulting Forensic Engineers (ACFE). Dr Denis Woods, of the ACFE, said a British study showed 88 per cent of fatal pedestrian accidents were caused by pedestrians, so traffic calming, to reduce speed, and design measures, to make the structure softer, were both needed.
Prof Mackay said the greater use of speed cameras and traffic-calming measures could reduce accidents by almost one third. "There should be lower speed limits on secondary roads and these should change very frequently," he said. "Every stretch of road and every bend should have its own limit. You adjust the limit to reflect what the driver is facing."
Prof Mackay reconstructed Princess Diana's accident for Channel 4 and says she would still be alive if there had been barriers in the Paris tunnel. Infrastructural changes were vital in reducing accidents, he said.
The drink-driving limits should be reduced from 80 mg per ml to 50 mg per ml in Ireland, he said. This would mean drivers could only take one beer. "But the main thing about drink driving is enforcement rather than what the laws are," Prof Mackay said. "In some Australian states every driver can expect to be tested once a year. In the UK, there's about a one-in-four chance.
"Of those drivers who die in car accidents in Ireland about 40 per cent are over the legal limit. In the UK, the percentage fell from 45 per cent to about 20 per cent when they introduced higher levels of breath testing."
Driving tests should be both written and practical and should have to be retaken, at a more advanced level, within one to two years of gaining the first licence, Prof Mackay said.
He said technological change was the most beneficial development in road-safety terms, because behavioural change was difficult to achieve.
The industry is recognising that people are different. At the moment car safety features are designed for the healthy young male," Prof Mackay said. "There is a big difference between a young football player and a 60-year-old woman. In the future we should be able to adjust our seat-belts and airbags according to parameters such as age and size." The low rate of seat-belt usage in Ireland - 55 per cent - should also be tackled, he said. Fine Gael yesterday tabled a Dail motion criticising the Government's failure to implement its road-safety strategy.