Who do we think we are fooling with our head-in-the-sand attitude to road deaths and serious injuries? Ourselves, says Kieran Fagan - and 10 people a month die on our roads because we won't face the truth.
The scene - any pub or restaurant any town anywhere. Last half hour before closing time; the place has filled up, many ordering last rounds. Some people are finishing up and going home, others stay until the very last moment.
The bar staff are serving foaming pints of stout and lager, ale and cider, Alco pops, wine and the occasional sparkling water and soft drink. Step back a moment and count the number of people with non-alcoholic drinks, then count the number of cars in the car park.
They don't match, not anywhere near it. Add in the people who - truly - have just had the one - and they still don't match. In most pubs and restaurants on most nights, there are drivers drinking more than they should and nobody is doing anything about.
Put your hand on your heart, swear it isn't so. You can't.
In city centres, you could argue that the customers are locals, within walking distance, or are going to get a taxi or bus home. Some even will. In the suburbs that can be the case, but is less likely. In our towns and villages, "everyone knows" that Paddy drives in three miles every evening to the pub, has a skinfull and drives three miles home again. "Half-cut" is the charitable description of his condition, but sure doesn't he know every inch of the road? And everyone who knows Paddy is complicit, that is to say guilty. Publican, drinking companions, family, and the Garda Siochána who find it politic to look the other way.
There is one measure which would stop Paddy - and Patricia too, because our young female motorists are picking up the habit - from exercising their "quasi-constitutional right" to drive away from the pub or restaurant half-cut. Put a Garda checkpoint outside bars and restaurants at closing time. When did you last see that? And when are you likely to? Random breath testing is not in the current Road Traffic Bill, debated in the Dáil last week. You won't see it introduced in the near future, and certainly not this side of a 2007 general election.
We know that drink is a factor in 40 per cent of road deaths. That means at least 130 people will die in 2004 in drink-related accidents on Irish roads. We don't have reliable figures for serious injuries, but if we had the picture would be even more troubling. Don't ask why, but the Garda Pulse computer records don't do serious injuries reliably. Our drink drivers do, unfortunately.
The opinion polls tell us that we have accepted - in principle - the argument for doing something serious to stop drink driving. The evidence of our own eyes tells us otherwise.
One of Seamus Brennan's last acts in the Department of Transport was to publish the new road safety strategy* which sets out to reduce overall road deaths by 25 per cent to 300 in three years. Saving lives is the primary target of the strategy. The document says "the advancement of full random breath testing is strongly recommended for the purpose of establishing a clear deterrent for motorists against drinking and driving".
Other measures, like speed cameras, a full system of penalty points, and increases in disqualification periods are listed. Important, yes, anything that can save lives is important, but a very real answer, one with real capacity to cut the death toll, breath testing before the crime can happen, is being delayed. And the gardaí have been given the nod which is as a good as a wink to say that drink-driving is not high on the agenda. Go get a few burglars, lads.
At present you cannot be tested unless you have been in an accident, committed another road offence, or given the gardaí good reason to believe you are incapable of driving. Good reason does not appear to include the gardaí visiting licensed premises, noting who had a skinfull and then pulling them over if they try to drive away. The Brennan plan says the gardaí have given specific commitments on policing drunk driving. We don't know what they are. We do know that every attempt to enforce the current law on drink driving is contested to the nth degree in our courts. The National Safety Council also endorses the plan for random preliminary testing.
Now look at that phrase "random preliminary breath testing". For €1 million, does that mean?
A. Gardaí mounting checkpoints on major roads after closing time?
B. Gardaí mounting checkpoints on minor roads after closing time?
C. Gardaí mounting checkpoints at the exits of pub car parks at closing time?
D. Gardaí mounting checkpoints at the exit of pub car parks, but only in cities and large towns?
Guess. Paddy and Patricia need not worry. Random breath testing is not in the current Bill. And when it comes, as the road safety strategy promises, the licensed trade will ride to the rescue, just as it did when it successfully fought to allow young children stay in pubs until 10 p.m. on summer evenings.
We know from experience that road deaths can be cut. Seat-belts, fitting airbags, side impact bars, child seats, better roads, better signage, better equipped ambulances, and the NCT test, all helped to cut road deaths during a period where the number of cars and drivers on the road has increased beyond our imagining. In the four months after the penalty points came in, our road death rate dropped to equal the best international benchmark. Unfortunately it did not stay there.
In the meantime as the debate continues, listen out for the weasel words: "ought to /should have", as in "the gardaí ought to the Minister should have"
All buck-passing and pub talk. Look at how Guinness manages to have its cake and eat it by flying the Diageo flag of convenience in the prostitutes-for-chastity exercise which is the Meas (Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society) campaign. It's funded by the drinks majors to make us think they are serious about tackling the problem caused by their products. We get exercised about drug pushers. Do we stop to think that some people in our licensed trade are on very shaky ground when they serve too much drink to drivers?
The gardaí will have a huge mountain to climb when they eventually face down Middle Ireland, you and me, our families, our friends, to enforce random breath testing for motorists. Mr Cullen's temporising may have gained him friends among drink-driving, but otherwise law abiding, citizens. Between now and the next election we can expect close to 300 drink-related deaths on our roads, and a larger number of serious injuries. And we are only starting to think about what we must do about people driving on drugs. Think again, Minister.
*Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006, Department of Transport, 25 Clare Street, Dublin 2, www.transport.ie