The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, is to be commended for his efforts to highlight the unprecedented level of road deaths since the turn of the year. Already this year, 48 people have been killed on our roads - no fewer than 14 in the past seven days alone. The victims include a 78-year-old woman struck by a car on the main Sligo to Bundoran road, a 13-year-old boy killed as he got off a school bus in Mayo and a 15-year-old girl killed when the car in which she was travelling struck a steel fence near Dungarvan, Co Waterford. It might be assumed that carnage on this scale would provoke grave public disquiet and generate a wide-ranging debate about road safety. But there is little evidence of this; it may be that 453 people lost their lives in road accidents last year but the level of public debate hardly registers when compared to that about the 42 reported murders in the State last year. At least some of the increase in road traffic deaths can be attributed to the record levels of car registrations in recent years; in simple terms, more cars on the roads help to increase the risk of accidents. For all that, several other factors should have helped contribute to a decline in road deaths. These include the scrappage scheme, which has succeeded in removing many potentially dangerous vehicles from our roads; an increased awareness among the public about the dangers of drinking and driving; an improved road network and the apparent decline in incidence of so-called "joyriding" in urban areas.
The Garda will be disappointed that Operation Lifesaver - launched last year in the Louth/Meath area and later extended to the rest of the State - has not had an appreciable impact on the overall road fatality figures. The Garda authorities appear confident that the results in Louth/Meath - where there has been a marked reduction in speeding and an increased usage of safety belts - will soon be evident across the State. But it may be that the operation needs a much higher public profile and greater visibility, both in the media and on the roads. The first phase of Operation Freeflow worked because it became abundantly clear to drivers that they would be penalised for any transgression. The same degree of certainty must apply to general road use. The speeding, reckless or careless driver - and those who do not bother to wear a safety belt - must be conscious of greatly-increased Garda vigilance and the certainty that they will be dealt with in the most severe terms, if they are apprehended. The Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, is surely correct when he says that driving behaviour, more than any other factor, is responsible for the upsurge in road deaths. At issue now is how best to modify this behaviour. We can appeal - yet again - to people's better nature and exhort them to behave more responsibly. But we must also signal our intolerance of the reckless driver by introducing much more severe on-the-spot fines and harsher sanctions, including a British-style "points system" for repeat offenders. It is to be hoped that the High-Level Group on Road Safety (under the aegis of the Department of the Environment) which was recently asked to formulate a detailed safety strategy, will make a difference. The current level of road deaths is simply intolerable. As a senior Garda officer observed yesterday: "We must, as a society, be capable of better."