The Government has failed in its responsibility to modify the behaviour of motorists through proper training, legislation and a strict enforcement of traffic laws. The number of road deaths and serious injuries continues to rise. The percentages of cars and trucks breaking the speed limits are double what they were eight years ago when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern launched the Government's first Road Safety Programme. And most crashes take place when people drive at unsafe speeds or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The catalogue of failures is depressing. There has been a lack of political will to crack down on drunken driving. The funding necessary to provide effective traffic policing and to implement the penalty points system was withheld. The scandal of the provisional licensing system for learner-drivers continues to grow. And after eight years, we are still waiting for the promised speed cameras and for legislation on random breath-testing.
Three departments are responsible for various aspects of road safety and they depend for their funding on a fourth. This fragmentation of authority means that no minister is directly accountable for the carnage. And Mr Ahern has sought to divert blame on to individual motorists. Most crashes are, indeed, caused by bad driving. But behaviour on the roads is deeply influenced by training - or the lack of it - and a concern by motorists that they may be detected and punished for breaking the law. Risks are taken when there is little fear of being caught. And police visibility is practically nil on our roads.
For the past number of weeks, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic has reported in this newspaper from coroners courts around the State on road deaths and their harrowing impact. Drunken driving and a failure to wear seat belts caused some fatalities. Then there was bad luck and misjudgment. But political incompetence was also indicted when, following the deaths of nine pedestrians and cyclists at street junctions within two years, a coroner wrote to the Department of Transport asking that "cyclops mirrors" be made compulsory on large trucks, as in Britain.
Too little and too late has been the story of this Government's response to road safety. Chairman of the National Safety Council Eddie Shaw resigned in protest last year because of the Government's failure to invest in life-saving measures. And now, after decades of promises to cut waiting times, the Department of Transport is transferring responsibility for driver-testing to a new Road Safety Authority. Since the Government published its first Road Safety Programme in 1998, the number awaiting tests has grown by 50 per cent. And the number of provisional licence-holders now exceeds 400,000.
New technology can limit individual car speeds and save lives. Before the Government embraces this latest big idea, however, it should provide the money and manpower to enforce existing laws on drink driving, the wearing of seat-belts and speed limits.