The urban sprawl northwards from Dublin to Navan, Kells and beyond has added to the hazards of driving on what are good roads. We are told that speed kills. So does arrogance, aggressive driving and plain bad manners. What is called tail-gating, i.e. keeping closer to the car in front of you than is safe, seems to be growing - it's almost a sport. One Sunday recently a driver going to Kells realised that a car was very close behind him. He put on some speed and so did the offending driver behind. The first driver moved as close to the edge of the road as he could. Still the second driver did not pass. This was on a good stretch of straight road. Soon they came to signs, large, coloured and emphatic, indicating that no passing was allowed for the next few kilometres. They were, both cars, already past the first of these warning notices, which continue right up to the borders of Kells, when the second driver decided that this was a challenge which could not be allowed to pass unflouted, so she put on a burst of speed and passed in the no-passing stretch. High spirits? A bit of fun? To wait for a mile and more on a broad road without passing and then to pass in a stretch where passing was prohibited, and which narrows and winds and is quite hazardous enough, was as cool a bit of damn-your-eyes as could be.
Often, of course, odd behaviour is just a lack of thought; the driver's mind is on something other than the road and the cars in front and behind. Doziness. But there is a great deal of indifference to road signs. "Slow" on a huge notice, is so often taken as a challenge: "Who do they thing they are, telling us?" seems to be the attitude in many cases. And while you are told to keep a distance between yourself and the car in front, everyone who takes to our roads knows that there is always a car to nip in between and sometimes two cars. Lorry drivers are sometimes accused of trying to intimidate you by driving right up against your rear bumper. Damnable when it happens, but at least they can see over your head and know when the road is clear in front to let them pass.
And, of course, the slogan could be offered to the authorities: "Using your mobile phone while driving may kill." It's unnerving for drivers in front and behind. Basically we haven't yet got used to that killing machine, the motor car. And none are free of fault.