Increased political will is required if road deaths in Ireland are to be cut significantly, the head of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of a new ETSC study on improvements in road death rates in European countries, ETSC executive director Joerg Beckmann described poor progress achieved by Ireland as "sad".
Ireland emerged in the study as having one of the worst records in Europe, reducing road deaths between 2001 and 2005 by only 3 per cent. This is despite the introduction of the penalty points system and a phased roll-out of a dedicated Garda traffic corps during that time. Responding to the results, the Minister for Transport Martin Cullen says that Ireland's placing in the survey does not reflect improvements implemented in the last 18 months.
Speaking in Athenry, Co Galway, yesterday, the Minister said that he had not seen the survey results. "My understanding is that it doesn't pick up on 2005 and 2006. We have changed dramatically in those two years with the National Road Safety Authority being set up, with all the mandatory alcohol testing brought in, all the new legislation, all the new policy," Mr Cullen said. "So I would expect a fairly dramatic change in Ireland's position when the next one is done, probably next year."
The European Union has set itself a target of cutting road deaths by 50 per cent by 2010, but the ETSC study found Ireland is one of the countries contributing least to that target. The ETSC ranks the Republic seventh from bottom in a list of 27 countries.
France, followed closely by Luxembourg and Belgium, is leading the charge having slashed road deaths in the four-year period by almost 35 per cent. Ireland has a road death rate of 97 per million population, which is 13th out of the 27 countries.
Mr Beckmann said at a press conference in Brussels yesterday: "The crux of the issue is whether there is the political will to effect change? Political leaders in Ireland need to show they have the will to implement new measures to boost road safety, such as better speed enforcement. "
He said some of the specific challenges faced in the Republic were the poor state of rural roads. He said the road infrastructure needed to be improved and the authorities needed to look at the treatment of high risk sites.
A spokesman for the Road Safety Authority (RSA) welcomed the ETSC report but said there was nothing new in it. He admitted that road deaths had been "creeping up" since a dip in 2002 and 2003 but added: "What needs to be put in place to cut road deaths is either here or on the way, the laws have been put in place."
He said the publication of the Road Traffic Bill in June allowed for the the ban on mobile phones while driving, mandatory breath testing and also the introduction of a network of speed cameras.
"The political will is there and certainly we have turned a corner in putting key measures in place," he added.
Commenting on France's huge success in cutting road deaths, Jean Chapelon, secretary general of the National Inter-Departmental Observatory on Road Safety, said the decision by President Jacques Chirac to prioritise road safety as a key plank of his government was critical.