Deaths On The Roads

Sir, - British standards of road safety would halve our fate of road deaths

Sir, - British standards of road safety would halve our fate of road deaths. But such standards require both compliance and enforcement. Neither is evident in Ireland.

As I drive around the country (speed limit plus or minus 5 per cent!), two things strike me. The first, widely adverted to, is the determination of young men to go faster than anyone else. The second is the blissful ignoring of speed limits by the truck-driving fraternity.

How many of your readers have come across a truck travelling at less than 50 m.p.h. (the universal speed limit for trucks outside urban areas), where the truck had the ability to go any faster - i.e. where it was neither clapped out, overloaded, or stuck in a line of traffic? My suspicion is that the number will be close to zero!

Perhaps the Garda can tell us how many truck drivers are prosecuted annually for exceeding the 50 m.p.h. limit. - Yours, etc.,

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Senator Brendan Ryan, Seanad ╔ireann, Baile ┴tha Cliath 2.