The failure to drive sensibly in foggy conditions was a prime factor in last week's mayhem on the M7, writes David Labanyi
In driving terms it was a perfect storm: two densely packed lanes of rush-hour traffic travelling at up to 100km per hour with drivers unable to see 30 murky yards past their bumper and a crashed petrol tanker stopped in their path across the M7.
The result was predictable and tragic. One young mother died, three people remain in hospital and scores of others were lucky to escape with minor injuries or shock after a series of pile-ups last Tuesday morning.
While drifting, deep fog made driving dangerous, witnesses also admitted many vehicles were travelling too fast.
Former Fine Gael TD Charles Flanagan, who was driving to Dublin that morning and had to brake suddenly to avoid a series of crashes, said people were travelling at "60, or 80 or 100km/h . . . too quickly".
An indication of the speed can be gauged from Tony Hennessy, who operates a towing and breakdown service. Fifteen of the 16 cars he removed from the crash scene "are total write-offs. I'd say there were another 60 to 70 vehicles involved, some of which are also written off."
THE FIRST SERIOUS pile-up on Irish roads demonstrates again the apparent inability of many motorists to moderate their driving to road conditions. However, a recurring criticism from many of those caught up in the pile-up was aimed at the absence of roadside warnings of the conditions or of the fact that the road ahead was blocked by crashed vehicles.
Kate Moyles (24) from Lumville, Co Kildare, who will be buried this morning, died shortly after the pile-up from head injuries sustained when her Volkswagen Polo reportedly collided with a fire engine en route to the first crash.
Kate's older sister, Evelyn, told The Irish Times her family was frustrated no system was used on Irish motorways to assess road conditions and warn drivers of potential hazards or force them to reduce speed. She believes drivers flout the 120km/h motorway speed limits.
"People speed there (on the M7) constantly and there doesn't seem to be any monitoring system. This is a main route to Dublin. Is one mobile camera enough for the amount of traffic on that road? Definitely not. You are not going to get people to slow down with that."
She said Kate commuted daily along the M7 to her office at the Sallins Medical Centre after dropping her daughter Ella (five) to school and "knew the road like the back of her hand".
"She was a beautiful girl and she was taken from us. We will definitely be looking to take this further to see how this can be prevented from happening to another family."
Evelyn said she plans to study how other countries manage motorway traffic during poor weather conditions.
Supt Tom Neville of Naas Garda Station said the crash site on the M7 was "not an accident-prone area" and confirmed that it was regularly patrolled by a mobile Gatso speed camera van.
Ireland does not have a national motorways operator such as the Highways Agency in England. Instead, the National Roads Authority (NRA), An Garda Síochána and the local authority through which the route travels jointly manage motorway traffic.
A Department of Transport spokeswoman said "at this point and time setting up an equivalent agency to the Highways Agency is not on our priority list". She said the department's priority was finishing the inter-urban routes.
The NRA plans to install overhead message signs along all motorways although this system will not be operational until after 2010. An NRA spokesman also pointed out such signs would have been difficult to see in the reduced visibility last Tuesday. Once in place, responsibility for updating these signs will rest with each local authority through which the motorway travels.
In England, the Highways Agency has installed fog detectors alongside motorways to provide weather warnings through roadside message signs.
A spokesman said agency staff also patrol the motorways to report visual hazards such as severe weather or crashes to regional control centres which then disseminate the information to the media and roadside message signs many kilometres ahead of the hazard.
Last Tuesday's fog was neither a surprise nor unusually severe. Met Éireann included it in weather updates that morning and AA Roadwatch also included warnings of dense fog around the M9 and M7 in its early morning reports.
This is why Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett says driver behaviour rather than the severity of the fog or absence of roadside warnings was the problem.
"You wouldn't run down the street with your eyes closed, so why would you drive at ten times that speed if you couldn't see what is in front of you? It is ultimately a matter of personal responsibility."
THE RSA SAYS motorways are the safest roads in the State, accounting for just 2 per cent of fatalities.
However motorway driving is an acknowledged weakness for most Irish drivers as it is not part of the driving test. Since October 2006, questions on motorway driving have been included in the driver theory test. Motorway driving is not expected to be included in the new learner permit system for driver training - due to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
To address this weakness for licensed drivers the RSA is also running a TV ad demonstrating the correct way to drive on, enter and exit a motorway. There is also an expanded section on motorway driving in the new Rules of the Road.
Conor Faughnan, AA Roadwatch public affairs spokesman, also says criticisms of motorway design miss the point. "The vast majority of incidents last Tuesday were due to driver error. You shouldn't need to tell drivers to slow down in fog, or to use fog lights."
"We have had four severe motorway incidents recently. You would have to conclude it will happen again even before the end of this year. People just drive way too fast."
However, he said temporary reductions in motorway speed limits in response to severe weather, as road authorities do in Sweden, should be considered. "It would require a legislative change but it is something that should be considered as the motorway network grows."
Running for cover: the insurance fog
The fog will have no bearing on the scores of insurance claims likely to follow last Tuesday's pile-ups, says Michael Horan, manager of non-life insurance with the Irish Insurance Federation.
"If you rear-end someone in fog, you are driving too close to the person in front and you will be at fault for the crash," he says. "With multiple vehicles, you have to work out from the accounts of the accidents whether it was one collision or a series of smaller collisions.
"So if someone crashed into the back of someone and pushes them into a third car, the guy at the back is probably responsible."
Gardaí investigating the pile-up have yet to confirm if any drivers involved had a provisional licence. If a provisional driver was involved, he or she is likely to face difficulties when making a claim.
According to Horan, a car struck by a provisional driver on a motorway would be fully covered.
"That won't affect the rights of the person who was run into because it is not his fault the learner driver was outside the terms of his licence," he says. "However, if a provisional driver is struck by someone else, or damaged their car during an evasive manoeuvre, the fact that they were driving outside the terms of their licence could have a bearing on their claim and it could be refused."