OPINION/Miriam Donohoe Consider these shocking statistics. Every day, an average of 110 people are killed in road accidents in the European Union, 4,650 are injured and the cost in health and labour terms is an estimated €140 million. It is impossible to quantify the human cost of the unremitting carnage caused by the car - something we can't live without but now akin to a global serial killer.
If these frightening figures (they add up annually to 40,000 people dead, 1.7 million injured and €45 billion lost to the economy) were a result of rail crashes, an infectious disease, or a bin Laden-type terrorist attack, there would be uproar and panic. The leaders of the 15 EU member-states would meet in emergency session to discuss how the death toll could be reduced, and to bring those responsible to justice. But because they are road deaths, it doesn't seem to matter.
The statistics show that 411 people lost their lives on Irish roads last year. Approximately 12,000 people were injured, 1,500 of them seriously. The main causes of the deaths and injuries, according to the National Safety Council, were speeding, drink-driving, and non-wearing of seatbelts. It is an awful waste of lives.
As of yesterday morning, 256 people had been killed on Irish roads so far this year, up five on the same period last year. Of the eight people who died in road accidents in the week leading up to last Sunday, August 18th, six were aged between 21 and 26 years of age.
They included friends Gerard McLoughlin (23), Elaine McGeough (22), and Celine McArdle (21) who left Dundalk to go shopping in Dublin on the afternoon of August 13th. The three pals never made it to the city. They met their death 20 miles from home near Dunleer when their car careered across the motorway section of the Dublin-Belfast Road.
For too long Irish politicians have been paying lip service to this acute problem. The issue hardly featured in the general election campaign and the Opposition parties barely raised a whimper when it emerged the Taoiseach's cavalcade was speeding at 85 m.p.h. on the hustings in Wexford.
Four years ago, we were promised a penalty points system for drivers as part of a new Road Safety Strategy, which we were told would cut road deaths by half. At the launch of the strategy, the Taoiseach said it was important to implement it "as soon as possible". We are still waiting, Mr Ahern, and people are still dying. Remember you promised that legislation to set up the scheme would be introduced in 1999, and that the new computer system to implement it would come in 2000?
The relevant legislation was not published until March last year and the technology is still not in place due to an inexcusable inter-departmental row about the €11 million needed to pay for it. We are told funding has been approved and the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has now promised the system will be phased in, manually initially, from October. Don't hold your breath.
One of the most worrying aspects is the number of young people who are killed. In the year 2000, 144 people aged between 15 and 24 lost their lives in accidents.
In Ireland, an 18-year-old can walk into a motor tax office, hand over €15, two passport size photos, complete a road safety theory test on a touch-screen computer and collect a provisional driving licence, which will allow him or her to take command of a potentially lethal weapon.
For the first provisional licence, a driver is supposed to be accompanied by a full licence holder. The law is widely flouted.
I have a confession to make and it is one I am not proud of. I drove for 13 years without a full licence. I never even applied for the test during that time. I broke the law and have no excuse and am deeply ashamed. Nobody ever came after me. I am now a licence holder.
Surely it should be compulsory for all drivers to produce a current driving licence when they are getting their annual insurance and tax renewed? Nobody should be allowed behind the wheel of a car without a document certifying they have had a minimum number of driving lessons.
There should also be a law against drivers under 25 years of age driving a car with a powerful engine, and a ban on them driving after a certain time at night. Statistics show the majority of people under 25 killed on our roads lose their lives between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The long-awaited penalty points system should be a good start but it will only work if there is proper enforcement. We are told the new Garda traffic corps will not be set up until next year - a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. If a motorist's speed goes undetected, what use then is the penalty points system? Recently 500 gardaí were deployed to round up illegal immigrants all over the country. Deploying 500 extra gardaí on Irish roads to enforce legislation could save lives.
Change is coming too slowly. Because, sadly, when it comes to road deaths, if doesn't seem to matter.