The name Pickford: is it familiar to you? Does it ring any bells? Or has all recollection that the name Pickford should inspire been lost in the congenial babble of slaughter on our roads, as one massacre becomes indistinguishable from another?
So let me remind you of the Pickfords, who arrived here on holiday from England last August. Eric Pickford, his wife Gillian, her daughter Emma, aged 14, their son Matthew aged six, and the couple's youngest son Simon, aged three, were driving to Killarney through Cork, near Ballydaheen, on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road. But of course, being visitors, and not knowing the indifference we exhibit towards the erection and maintenance of signage on our roads, the Pickfords did not have the slightest idea what the single modest dog-leg sign, unreinforced by other, more dramatic warnings, actually meant.
Wrong side
The road beyond the sign turns a sharp left, with the camber falling away. This means that not merely is the vehicle's natural momentum inclining it across the road towards oncoming vehicles, but the actual road surface is too. Unless you are in a very low gear, going very slowly, and are fully aware of the severity of the bend ahead, you will, almost certainly be drawn by the laws of physics to the wrong side of the road, as the Pickfords were to find.
They were propelled straight into an oncoming lorry whose driver is blameless in all of this - but who would have the dreams this unfortunate must now endure? Within moments of the collision, the Pickford vehicle and its human cargo were afire. The lorry driver scrambled free, uninjured, but the Pickfords did not. Dead or dying inside their wheeled crematorium were Eric, Gillian, Emma and Simon.
Two brave and nameless men, an American tourist and a local, smashed their way into the inferno of the Pickford vehicle and dragged six-year-old Matthew out through the rear window. He was suffering from multiple injuries and burns; he and his crippling injuries have since vanished from our news pages, our sensibilities and - for this, we should indeed be grateful - our consciences.
But we should nonetheless be in no doubt about who played a vital role in the orphaning of little Matthew and the destruction of his entire family. We did. The charge lies on us, for we have not shown the political will to erect proper warning signs which might prevent needless and avoidable carnage such as that which consumed the Pickford family.
Legal duty
Such disregard for human life, if exhibited in the workplace, would give rise to ruinous compensation claims. No management that was so indifferent to the welfare of its employees could legally or financially survive. So why is such delinquency tolerated in matters of governance? Is there not a legal duty on the State, comparable to that of an employer towards its employees, to protect road users from unnecessary hazard? Does failure to discharge that duty in law not constitute culpable homicide? So have poor Matthew Pickford's guardians not good reason to sue the State on his behalf?
But our road deaths are only in part caused by inadequate roads and signs; they are also caused by bad and stupid drivers, and we look to our courts to protect us from them. Last June, outside Sligo town, four cars were seen driving at midnight at very high speed in what seemed like a race. Two brave traffic gardai, Denis O'Connor and John Finan, gave chase reaching 118 m.p.h., and were able to bring the four cars to a halt.
One of the drivers, Gary Fallon, told the two gardai that he was test-driving a new car. He was duly charged, and in court lost his licence for three years, with an additional fine of £400. Considering that he was travelling at twice the national speed limit, it seems a reasonable penalty. Nonetheless, he appealed the sentence.
At Sligo Circuit Court three weeks ago, Judge Carol Moran heard that another of the drivers, Paul McGowan - was he test-driving a new car also? - had appeared before a different district judge to Gary Fallon, who had merely ordered that he pay £400 to charity, and adjourned the case until September 2001, when it might be possible that no conviction be recorded (for travelling at almost 120 m.p.h. at midnight, mark you).
Judge Moran ruled that since Paul McGowan had got off virtually "Scot free", there had to be consistency. He removed the disqualification, but affirmed the fine. In other words, rather than imposing consistency in severity, the courts opted for consistency in leniency; and thus two young men, who to my mind have absolutely no business being behind the wheel of a car for a very long time indeed, today are driving still, with Paul McGowan at least the owner of a blemish-free licence. Possibly even their insurance premiums are not affected.
Poor box
There are many issues raised here, most of them so depressingly obvious that they defy comment. For if the courts can allow drivers who in concert are going at twice the national speed limit back on the roads, is there any point in decent traffic gardai doing their duty at all?
There is a more general point. Is it not time for the practice of offering better-off defendants an escape route, by means of a contribution to charity, to be ended once and for all by fiat issued from the Supreme Court? Or is the poor box, like the nonchalantly erected road sign that points the unwary to their doom, yet another example of an Irish solution to an Irish problem?