Young drivers must have their say on road safety, a Government TD claimed today as public consultation on a new five-year strategy gets underway.
Fianna Fáil TD for Dún Laoghaire Barry Andrews said the time for lecturing was over and warned those most at risk had to be listened to. The call comes after several days of carnage on the country's roads which left nine people, many of them young men, dead.
Mr Andrews, chair of Ógra Fianna Fáil, said: "The tragic events of recent days show it is time for a new approach. It is not good enough for authority figures to lecture young drivers, we must listen to the ideas of young people on how to improve safety.
"This consultation process is an opportunity for organisations and clubs which represent young people, and individual young drivers, to have their say. "Despite the bad press younger drivers have been receiving the reality is the vast majority are responsible and have an important contribution to make."
Anyone with a view on how to make Irish roads safer can make a submission to the Road Safety Authority, Ballina, Co Mayo.
To help the public formulate submissions, the RSA has highlighted the "four E's" that have the greatest impact on road safety:
- Education measures - explaining and teaching road safety to road users
- Engineering measures - building roads and vehicles more safely
- Enforcement measures - policing those who refuse to behave safely on the roads
- Evaluation measures - examining what has worked or failed.
Submissions should take up no more than two full A4 pages per area (ie education, engineering, enforcement and evaluation) and be posted directly to the Road Safety Strategy 2007-2011, Road Safety Authority, Ballina, Co Mayo, or e-mailed to strategy@rsa.ie.
Further information can be found on the RSA's website.