Day lights: Leaving it up to you

The Government committee responsible for developing road safety strategies will not recommend compulsory daytime headlights. This is despite a highly successful pilot campaign in Dublin last year.

The High Level Group on National Road Safety will consider the impact of last year's "Lights On Daytime" campaign by Dublin City Council. Accident statistics for the period are expected to be made available by the National Roads Authority (NRA) at the end of October or the beginning of November.

The group comprises the Department of Transport, the Department of the Environment and Local Government, the National Roads Authority, (NRA), An Garda Síochána, the National Safety Council, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and local authorities. It devised the last road safety strategy which expired last year and is now working on a new framework to run until 2005. It is expected to issue its recommendations in the coming weeks.

A source told Motors that the group would most likely shy away from the Scandinavian system where motorists are required by law to have daytime running lights (DRL) in use during the day. Figures released last week showed a reduction in road-death numbers since the introduction of penalty points in November, in all categories except motorcycles.

The 2002 "lights on" campaign in Dublin has been described as a success by Owen Keegan, the council's director of traffic, and assistant city manager. Speaking to Motors Keegan said there was "very strong support from the public. It was very well received. There was a large increase in the use of dipped headlights by motorists in Dublin and no increase in Cork" - Cork was used as a control area to assess the impact of the campaign in Dublin.

Earlier this month Keegan and his City Council colleagues received a report by the department of psychology in Trinity College, Dublin. The 70-page report, seen by Motors, shows increased DRL use from 15 per cent to 44 per cent during the six-week campaign last summer. After the campaign ended, up to 34 per cent of motorists used DRLs on normal days and up to 70 per cent on "gloomy" days.

The report, by Ray Fuller, David Bonney and Fiona Hayes, said that the campaign had an "immediate and persistent" effect. In the control area of Cork city DRL use actually dipped slightly to below 10 per cent during the campaign period.

The report suggests that perhaps the "optimal" strategy would be a "legal and technical one" - the introduction of a legal requirement on manufacturers that all new vehicles be fitted with automatic DRLs. This is how it works in other countries, most notably in Scandinavia where such initiatives date back up to 30 years.

Finland was first to make DRL use compulsory on rural roads in winter in 1972. In 1977 Sweden made their use compulsory on all roads throughout the year, while Norway required all new cars to be fitted with automatic DRLs from 1985. Canada followed suit from 1989, and Hungary in 1994 outside built-up areas.

A study by the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands in 1997 said that requiring motorists by law to switch on their lights during the day would "most likely prevent 24.6 per cent of the fatalities and 20.0 per cent injured persons from multiple daytime accidents within the EU." At the time of the study it predicted the saving of 5,500 lives and and about 155,000 injuries annually.

The study says the mandatory DRL use is both "desirable and urgent" but warns policy-makers to adopt a "gently-gently" approach with the public. Brian Farrell of the National Safety Council would advocate "anything that increases visibility because that has got to be good for road safety." The NSC ran its own campaign three years ago. The initiative was supported by the minister at the time, Bobby Molloy, who said the Government was "seriously considering" the mandatory DRLs.

Owen Keegan believes phased introduction may be the best option. "There may be an argument for a promotion of voluntary use first and then a staged approach where we get PSVs (taxis, buses etc) to have them on. There may not be enthusiasm for making it mandatory for all vehicles straight away."