Media campaigns have power to reduce Irish road deaths

Sir, – I read with dismay that the target of having no more than 72 annual road deaths by 2030 is now “frighteningly off course”, according to the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (“Emergency doctors call for urgent action to stop ‘carnage’ on State’s roads”, News, April 28th).

The article notes that “behind every death are many more who survive with catastrophic injuries that leave permanent disability and often require years of rehabilitation”.

Endorsed by the World Health Organisation, the Safe System Approach holds “that no one should die or be seriously injured using the road network”. The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine said this a meaningless aspiration, however, unless “specific, evidence-based reforms” are activated. I believe we have significant talent to change the statistic regarding the number of road deaths in Ireland using campaigns on radio, television, newspapers and social media.

It is also worth noting that our road deaths have risen by 31 per cent since 2019, while the EU average fell by 12 per cent. – Yours, etc,