A MORE ASSERTIVE enforcement of road traffic legislation has had a dramatic effect on the number of people killed on Irish roads. We now rank sixth among 27 EU states in terms of road safety. If the progress made is sustained, a target of halving the number of road deaths within a ten-year period could be achieved. That would be a considerable success. It would be particularly satisfying because of obvious shifts in our motoring culture and the extent to which drivers are taking responsibility for their own behaviour.
Complacency is the greatest enemy of safe driving. While the lowest number of road deaths since records began was recorded in 2008, for the first three months of that year it seemed as if the number of fatalities would represent a return to the bad old days. But we got lucky. A more visible Garda presence on the roads could have made the difference. Or drivers may have taken more care. Whatever. The outcome was positive. And we must take steps to minimise any chance of future slippage.
The most dangerous places are not motorways or dual carriageways or city streets, but country roads. Speed and drunken driving are the greatest threats there. Funding for the maintenance of country roads by local authorities may fall by up to 30 per cent this year. Their surface quality can be expected to deteriorate. Because of that, councils should pay immediate attention to the establishment of safe and appropriate speed limits. As of now, roads are festooned with speed limit signs that either encourage motorists to drive too fast or direct them to drive at speeds well below what safety requires. That must change. Placing 100km speed limit signs within 100 metres of blind bends on country roads is crazy. The explanation that this is just an indicative upper limit is a pathetic excuse.
The Government has its own obligations. The promise of a speed camera system has been breached so often in recent years that the Road Safety Authority is nearing despair. There are also concerns that funding for the Garda Traffic Corps may be reduced or that officers may be deployed elsewhere. That would be a mistake. At a time when enforcement is having an impact on reducing the incidence of drunken driving, cutting back on policing would send the wrong signal to the wrong people. Last January, more than 1,000 motorists were arrested for drunken driving. That is a scary figure, bearing in mind the kind of light touch regulation favoured by those in authority.