Road safety education is stalled says campaigner

The educational side of road safety is not functioning at the moment, according to Vivian Foley, road safety campaigner and author of How Safe is Your Car? As a result, we are failing in one of the key areas where lives can be saved.

Foley's book is being distributed to post-primary schools by the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland.

However, in the South, where the Government launched its Staying Alive programme for post-primary schools, he says the scheme has failed.

"The scheme was to be the flagship of introducing road safety into schools. The fourth report of the High-Level Group on road safety claimed that 30 per cent of schools were operating the scheme.

"Yet," says Foley, "we know of only about 10 per cent of schools actually using the scheme."

Foley also criticises the lack of resources provided to road safety officers, who he says, are virtually volunteers, working part-time on road safety and under the direct control of county managers, with no relationship to any central organisation.

"These posts need to be made permanent and given the extra resources."

Foley has set up a website aimed at increasing the information and education on road safety. It's at www.roadsafetyireland.net