A crisis of fatal proportions

NRA Report/Analysis: If they had died in a terrorist bomb attack the country would have been plunged into mourning, and rightly so.

But, as it stands, when eight people including a two-year boy were killed on Ireland's roads in a little over 24 hours this week, it was inevitable they would fade from the front pages and from the public memory almost as quickly as their lives were snuffed out.

As the National Roads Authority publishes its latest analysis of driver behaviour on the Republic's roads, this loss of life is a reminder that what is happening day-in, day-out is indeed a crisis of depressing proportions.

The latest deaths bolster the figures for the year to date: 50 people have now lost their lives on the roads, barely one month into 2006. Last year saw the highest death toll on the roads since 2001, prior to the initially successful introduction of penalty points at the end of 2002.

Despite this, the NRA's study of free speeds - the speed a drivergoes when not forced to slow down by bad weather, twisting roads or traffic congestion - shows a driving public seemingly oblivious or dismissive of the dangers and seemingly confident that they will not be caught transgressing the law by gardaí.

Errant drivers would be wrong to think they will not be caught on the roads - many tens of thousands have received penalty points and fines and many have received the maximum 12 points to put them off the road.

But the results of the NRA study show that the risk of getting caught is not great enough to force drivers to stick to the rules.

When the Government switched over from miles to kilometres in January 2005, it decided to take the opportunity to reduce some limits on the State's smaller rural roads in an effort to cut deaths on some of our most dangerous routes. The figures for 2005 show that this has failed.

The limit on 96,000km of non-national (regional and county) roads was reduced by 20 per cent to 80km/h (50mph). Thousands of new signs were erected but, as today's figures now show, to no avail.

The 2005 Survey of Free Speeds shows 63 per cent of car drivers exceeded the 80km/h limit on regional roads compared to only 8 per cent who broke the 100km/h (60mph) limit in 2003, when the survey was last carried out.

On these roads, the average free speed actually increased from 79 to 84km/h between mid- to late 2003, when the last survey was carried out, and the summer of 2005 when the latest study was conducted.

So, a combination of drivers going faster and lower speed limits being ignored has led to the surge in non-compliance.

The survey also shows that on smaller roads, known as county roads, 37 per cent of drivers exceeded the 80kmph limit in 2005, compared to 10 per cent who broke the 2003 limit.

However, on this road type, drivers were reported to have dropped their average speed from 77 km/h in 2003 to 75 km/h in 2005, while the limit decreased by 10km/h.

It can be argued that drivers will only stick to sensible speed limits and some of the limits that were reduced in January 2005 are far from what could be considered appropriate or sensible.

Take the old N1 from Dublin to Belfast, passing through Balbriggan, Drogheda and Dundalk.

With metrication and the construction of the M1, what used to be one of the busiest arteries in the country was reclassified almost overnight as a regional road, the R132.

Large stretches of the road are wide, well-surfaced and well-lit but the limit has been set at 80km/h. At the same time many national secondary routes are of inferior quality but their limits actually increased slightly with metrication from 60mph to 100km/h (62mph).

Speed limits need to be set sensibly and the fear factor of getting caught speeding must be instilled in drivers.

The results of today's study do not augur well for the existence of the latter and it is difficult to see the list of 31 new penalty point offences being respected from April 1st.

If most drivers feel free to break speed limits in large numbers is there any hope of them not engaging in dangerous overtaking, or is there any reason to think they will not cross a continuous white line?

Motorists know that Garda speed detection is piecemeal; defined by an under-resourced force and a small number of fixed speed cameras, many of which have been vandalised or broken.

With this in mind Martin Cullen would do well to ensure he brings forward the necessary, and long-promised, legislation with urgency to bring about a coherent and comprehensive network of speed cameras across the State.

Confused episodes such as random breath testing, or the lack of it, also serve to undermine respect for the rules of the road amongst the driving public.

But a focus purely on catching speeders would be foolish. Driver error is seen as the main contributory factor in more than 88 per cent of fatal or injury crashes and the main contributory factor in two-vehicle collisions is drivers travelling on the wrong side of the road.

A focus on car drivers would also be a mistake. Today's report shows that 94 per cent of articulated vehicles drove over the speed limit on motorways in 2005, up from 85 per cent in 2003.

Eighty-eight per cent of rigid trucks drove over the limit on motorways, an increase of five percentage points, while on dual carriageways 87 per cent of articulated trucks, and 78 per cent of rigid vehicles broke the limit. The 80km/h limit set down for such vehicles is there for a good reason and must be enforced for the safety of all road users.

Ultimately it is the driver who is best placed to make the roads safer for all concerned but it is hard to see how driver behaviour can be changed when many do not even ensure their own children are adequately safe in their cars. The NRA's seatbelt survey shows that, while vast improvements have been made in seatbelt wearing rates, some motorists are still refusing to belt up, particularly in the back.

The NRA's report on seatbelt wearing rates, also published today, shows wearing rates for drivers and adult front seat passengers changed little between 2003-2005, with 86 per cent of drivers belting up in 2005, as opposed to 85 per cent in 2003.

Worryingly, 40 per cent of primary school children were not wearing belts in the backs of cars in 2005, although this represents an improvement from 52 per cent who did not belt up in the back in the 2003 survey. Some 30 per cent of primary school children travelled to school unbelted in the front passenger seat in 2005, the survey also found.

At secondary school age the situation disimproves, with 45 per cent not belting up in the back, and 32 per cent not using the belt in the front passenger seat.

It is hardly surprising considering the example set by adults - only 46 per cent of adults wore belts while travelling in the rear, according to the NRA study.

Brian Farrell of the National Safety Council said after the spate of road deaths on Monday that motorists should remember that "using the roads is the most dangerous thing you do every day". We are slow in getting this message.

The NRA is hosting a road safety conference on March 7th and 8th next. The conference, An Integrated Approach to Road Safety, will have representatives from road safety groups as well as the Garda and the Departments of Transport, Finance, Health, Environment, Education, and Justice.