Madam, - The recent tragic road accidents have been met by the authorities responsible for road safety with the now familiar responses of more penalty point offences and more speed cameras.
When will the Government and the Road Safety Authority realise the problem lies with the quality of driving by current licence holders, and the absence of sufficient training for our 400,000 provisional licence holders? Not a lot can be done about the former group, but surely steps should be taken to ensure the latter group must complete a recognised driving course before being allowed on our roads. Thereafter there should be a speed restriction on all vehicles driven by learner-drivers.
I realise it will be very difficult for the Government to impose restrictions on 400,000 members of the electorate ahead of a general election. But what is more important - lives or votes?
The irony here is that the Government has successfully implemented the National Car Test, but has completely failed to introduce a mandatory training programme for the drivers of some of these vehicles. - Yours, etc,
MIKE CORMACK, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - With regard to the continuing debate of deaths on our roads, there has lately been much finger pointing and attributing blame from various parties.
While acknowledging that cold, hard facts do not always tell the full story, do we have real statistics of causes for fatal road accidents? Obviously, there are sensitivities around how this data would be publicised, but in general I would have thought we can categorise an accident's primary cause by such things as speeding; overtaking; fell asleep at wheel etc. How can we even begin to fix the problem if all we have is speculation about what the problem actually is? - Yours, etc,
DAVID McGUINNESS, Grangebrook Avenue, Dublin 16.