Madam, – Once again this weekend we have seen more deaths on our roads.
However, one common theme seems to be emerging, and not just from the tragedies over the bank holiday: the high incidence of roadside hazards in causing death in single vehicle crashes.
Two of the deaths over this past weekend have involved single vehicles which left the road and hit posts. These fatalities confirm studies in other countries that positioning immovable objects such as concrete posts, telegraph posts and solid walls on rural roads increases the likelihood of fatalities.
In fact, a study published in 1999 by the NHMRC Road Accident Research Unit at The University of Adelaide* found that roadside hazards were responsible for 40 per cent of all fatalities in car crashes between 1985 and 1996. If a car leaves the road and crashes into a hedgerow or through a wooden fence then the likelihood of serious injury or death is much reduced.
Why then do our local councils and the NRA continue to allow solid stones walls, metal signposts embedded in concrete and other such immovable objects to be erected where they can contribute to this unacceptable level of death on our roads.
Is it not time our TDs read this report and implement its findings? It might just save some lives and reduce the grief felt by those left behind. – Yours, etc,