Safety council calls for increased State spending to reduce carnage on roads

The National Safety Council has appealed to the Government to spend more on enforcing legislation to reduce the number of road deaths. It also wants greater investment in education towards the same goal.

Mr Cartan Finegan, chairman of the council, said that "while the level of deaths and injuries on our roads over the past 12 months indicates little change in the behaviour of road users, the council takes heart from the fact that, for the first time, a comprehensive framework is now in place to tackle what has become one of our society's gravest problems." He said the first Government strategy document on road safety, The Road to Safety, published in June, gave all organisations involved in the fight against road deaths a co-ordinated strategic direction lacking in the past.

The document sets a target of reducing road deaths by 20 per cent over five years, (472 were killed in 1997) which exceeds the 15 per cent reduction proposed by the EU. Mr Finegan said: "There is clear consensus that although the issue comprises many elements, it is speeding, drink driving, and lack of seat-belt usage that are at the root of the road death epidemic."