What are the most dangerous roads in Ireland? Well, some of them are those nice small side roads where the man or woman going out to shop a mile or two away is certain that he or she could meet only neighbours' cars, and sure, that's no trouble. And the same kindly side roads at night will be equally safe, if not safer, for you have advance warnings of a car approaching round a bend from the beam of the headlights. All very well, of course, if you ignore the fact that many juggernauts making their way northwards, usually, have caught on to the seeming advantages of less crowded conditions than the motorways or big roads. Anyway, they come and they frighten the life out of you, rocketing along, and you half-way up the ditch to avoid them.
But there are other oddities. One corner of a certain road has about four times in the last few years had a car, at a not obviously dangerous curve, plough through the hedge during the night - the occupiers being a couple of hundred yards away behind a screen of trees, heard nothing. Once there was broken glass at the gap in the hedge. On the last occasion, there was no glass, pointing, the fence-menders believed, to the fact that it was a lorry and therefore the windscreen would be higher up. At any rate, no clues left. It took at least half a day to mend the hole with stout tree branches, wire and posts.
All of this, seemingly at night, and it is interesting that the worst time for road accidents is between midnight and 6 am, especially at weekends. And in 52 per cent of fatal accidents involving young drivers, speed is specified as a contributory factor, compared with 27 per cent for accidents involving other drivers. And Saturday and Sunday accounted for two-thirds of all those killed in young driver accidents. In various parts of the country, no doubt, gardai have special summer alerts. In Louth-Meath they have announced a campaign "Operation Samhradh", which runs until September 3rd, targeting drink-driving, speeding and non-wearing of seatbelts. The figures given here are from an article in The Meath Chronicle.
It's a strange omission, this non-use of seatbelts. Is it just a macho thing among men? (In Dublin taxis, many of the rear seat belts are impossible to struggle into. Some just difficult, some not in order.) "Wise up and slow down" is the message of Superintendent Eamonn Courtney of Navan. And he points out that the holiday season with its increased traffic and festivities involving drink adds to the public dangers. Y