Sir, - The lively debate in your pages regarding safety on Irish roads has failed to give adequate attention to the simple fact that enforcement of existing traffic regulations in the State has never reached more than symbolic levels. Snap campaigns are no more a solution than the five squad cars equipped with speed detection technology cited by Vincent Browne and intended to cover every lane from Kinsale to Fanad.
The experience of US states, notably California, shows that the daily behaviour of drivers can be changed only if there is a near certainty that the driver who runs through a red light or a stop sign (common practice now in Dublin) or who exceeds speed limits will be stopped and ticketed. A lasting change in drivers' observance of the rules of the road needs a substantial and dedicated mobile police force operating 365 days per year. It also needs a transparent system of penalties so that drivers know exactly what will happen to them when, not if, they are caught.
Automatic suspension of licences for three moving violations is one way of sending a clear message. Penalties distributed on a lottery basis, often by eccentric judges, are not. At the end of the day, drivers will continue to disregard regulations as long as the probability of getting caught is 5 per cent or less. When the probability reaches 75 per cent they will change their behaviour. - Yours, etc., Niels De Terra,
Lower Glenageary Road, Co Dublin.