Ministers accuse motorists of irresponsibility

The Ministers for Transport and Justice and the chairman of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) have accused motorists of not taking responsibility for their driving following the deaths of 12 people in eight crashes since Sunday.

Irish motorists were blatantly disregarding the rules of the road, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said yesterday.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said motorists must stop blaming the State for road deaths.

RSA chairman Gay Byrne said people were not getting the message about road safety.

Their comments came after the number of road deaths since the start of the year rose to 217 yesterday following the deaths of 12 people in just three days.

Mr Cullen said Irish people had failed to make a cultural change to where the abuse of traffic laws and dangerous driving were no longer acceptable.

In all other countries where the number of people dying on the roads had fallen bad driving behaviour had become an "anathema" .

"This has been the sea change, about drinking and driving, about speeding on our roads and about blatantly, blatantly disregarding the rules of the road and having somehow an impression within ourselves that the rules of the road apply to somebody else and not to myself."

Irish drivers did not have this "cultural mindset" and this was why the carnage on the roads was continuing.

"The most powerful person in this whole issue is the individual behind the wheel of the car . . . If we had 40,000 members in the guards they can't be at every junction on every road at every minute of the day."

Mr McDowell said drunk and dangerous drivers were responsible for road deaths.

"Blaming the State is not the way to get on with this. It's Irish motorists who must get the message. It is dangerous, speedy, drunken and careless driving that is causing deaths, not the gardaí."

Mr Byrne said gardaí were "helpless" to stop the increasing death toll on the roads. Gardaí were criticised whether the number of penalty points given out went up or down. "It's a Catch 22 situation, and the Garda Síochána are as helpless as everybody else in the situation."

Mr Byrne said he did not know what more could be done to stop the growing number of fatalities.

"We have done all the horror ads, we have tried to get to them on television and radio, but there are obviously a great number of people who don't look at television, don't listen to radio, don't read newspapers and don't get the message."

The three were speaking on separate radio programmes yesterday. Mr McDowell and Mr Byrne were criticised for their comments by the employer of two siblings who died in a crash outside Portlaoise on Monday.

Thomas Frewen (22), from Kilworth, Co Cork, his sister Mary (19) and their friend, Paul Geary (21) from Mitchelstown, were killed when their car collided with an articulated lorry.

Declan Corbett, of the Corbett Court Hotel in Co Cork, where several members of the Frewen family worked, said Mr McDowell was shifting the blame for road safety from himself and Gay Byrne to the young victims. He said Mr Byrne should resign.

The latest victim on the roads was cyclist Patrick Gallagher (45), Cloughan, Co Westmeath.

Mr Gallagher was killed yesterday when he was hit by a car while cycling on the Mullingar to Delvin road a mile outside Mullingar at 12.30am.