Finally, something is going to be done about the safety of goods vehicles. After years of neglect and vague political promises, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has authorised the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to take over the management and operation of testing systems from local authorities. The bad news is that talks on financing the new service and the timeframe for the transfer of responsibilities are only now getting under way.
There is no time to waste. For years there has been disquiet over the number of fatal collisions involving commercial vehicles. And traffic surveys have shown excessive speeding by lorries is a particular problem. But nobody realised just how bad the situation had become until British authorities released spot-check figures last year. They showed that 60 per cent of Irish trucks stopped on UK roads in 2006 had failed to meet safety standards. Faults included unsafe trailers, overloaded and unroadworthy vehicles and excessively tired drivers.
Our existing safety checks for goods vehicles are a farce. Three official testers are employed in the State to inspect the entire fleet. And a system has grown up whereby lorry owners and operators are permitted to test their own vehicles by local authorities. That cosy arrangement will end when the RSA takes over responsibility for annual testing and for the development of training programmes for drivers. A three-pronged approach to safety is envisaged by the RSA: a vehicle testing process that is conducted impartially and correctly; a roadside inspection system and regular checks on company premises to ensure vehicles are maintained in a roadworthy condition. It sounds good. But its execution will require full-blooded co-operation from the Garda. It also sounds expensive. And if the Government's commitment to funding speed cameras is anything to go by, we could be waiting for years before a new training and testing system is put in place.
Notwithstanding those concerns, the initiative should be welcomed. It recognises a serious weakness in our road safety strategy, even if the administrative arrangements required to address it are still at the planning stage. Testing facilities must now be provided as a matter of urgency and the necessary funding granted by the Department of Finance so that the strategy can be implemented. During the past decade, there have been too many broken promises and too many missed targets involving road safety projects. Inter-departmental bickering over where the initial cost should fall has delayed and damaged important developments that would have saved lives and money. It must not happen again.