Sir, - Your issue of March 29th contained two stories which sum up an extraordinary contradiction at the heart of Irish attitudes towards the increasingly contentious issue of safe and healthy lifestyles.
Your Science Editor, Dick Ahlstrom, questioned the controversies surrounding innovations such as masts for mobile phones, electricity lines, and genetically modified foods which might or might not have an impact on health.
On the other hand, your story on Page 3, accompanied by a photograph of a horrific truck plunge off a bridge in Co Kildare, summed up a real and proven safety threat. The accompanying headline, "ninety-seven road deaths in first three months of the year" points to the fact that road fatalities are already running at a higher rate this year than last year. Four further road fatalities on Sunday alone in counties Louth, Dublin, Offaly and Donegal, highlight the now commonplace death toll on Irish roads each weekend. This is a chilling fact given the huge efforts launched last year through "Operation Lifesaver" and the Government's Strategy for Road Safety to try to get the road safety message home.
Last Friday, the Local Government Alliance, a network of over 1,600 councillors representing local authorities at the county, town and regional levels as well as the health boards and VECs, issued a statement calling for a reality check on public attitudes to road safety.
Death and injury on our roads is a daily and immediate threat to the lives and well-being of every Irish household and yet for some inexplicable reason seems to provoke much less public response than other issues which generate so much hysteria. Is the Celtic Tiger on wheels gone out of control? - Yours, etc., Liam Kenny, Director, General Council of County Councils,
Harold's Cross Road, Dublin 6W.