Road safety strategy delayed by State inaction

With the previous road safety strategy having ended last December, it has emerged that the lack of a new strategy is partly because work on the project had not begun when responsibility for it was handed over to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) last September.

The strategy is central to the Government's policy to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads because it co-ordinates the efforts of all State agencies working in road safety into a series of recommendations and targets. It also allows the effectiveness of national road safety measures to be evaluated.

The last strategy contained key road safety policies including mandatory breath testing and an expanded speed camera network. This strategy came to an end last December. The absence of a new strategy - to run for five years until 2011 - was the subject of a heated discussion in the Dáil yesterday with Labour Party spokeswoman for transport Roisín Shortall saying it "beggars belief" that the Government did not yet have a road safety strategy "when there is so much concern at road safety. Minister we are in the second quarter of the year, where is it?"

Responding, the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said he would not rush the RSA and was prepared to give it any addtional time required to complete the new strategy. "I am far more interested in the quality of the work that the RSA is doing." He added that he would bring forward legislation to provide for any new measures recommended in the strategy if required. Mr Cullen added that the RSA was working through a large number of submissions prior to finalising the new strategy.

However, The Irish Times understands that a key reason the new plan is not yet complete is because the Department of Transport had not yet started work on the strategy before responsibility for the project was passed over to the RSA.

To put this in context, the British department of transport has allocated approximately 18-months to devise its new strategy, which is due in 2009.

Since last September, the RSA has commissioned international road safety expert Fred Wegman, director of the Dutch Road Safety Research Institute, to examine Ireland's road safety record and produce a series of recommendations based on best practice in other countries.

The RSA also sought public submissions and these were discussed at a two-day work-shop in Dublin last December attended by key road safety stakeholders. Among those taking part were senior officials from the departments of transport, justice and health, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, the National Roads Authority, senior gardaí, the Minister for Transport and Mr Wegman. "The development of the next Road Safety Strategy is a complex and detailed process involving many stakeholders. The RSA is not prepared to compromise quality for time," a RSA spokesman said. The RSA board must approve the new strategy before it goes to the Minister.

It also emerged last night that there were 600 fewer serious injuries due to crashes last year as the number of people killed on the roads fell by 61 compared with 2005. The increase in penalties for drink-driving and dangerous driving, which were quietly signed into law on March 3rd by the Minister for Transport have also been welcomed by the RSA.

Since March the minimum disqualification for a driver-convicted of drink-driving has been extended from three months to one year and ranges up to a maximum of six years.

Drivers who fail to provide a sample of blood or urine will see their disqualification period increase from between two and four years to four and six years. Penalties for motorists convicted of dangerous driving have been doubled to two years for a first offence and to four years for second and subsequent offences.

Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA said: "This life-saving legislation introduces tougher penalties. Combined with unprecedented levels of Garda enforcement it now means that drivers know they have a very good chance of getting caught if they break the law."