Sir, - Your editorial of October 17th rightly referred to the appalling "carnage" on our roads. I believe that the increase in "road rage" is largely responsible for the dangerous driving which frequently results in fatalities.
Many lives could be saved if proper procedures on detection, prosecution, conviction and penalising of offenders were adhered to.
Detection is a matter not only for the Garda, but for every law-abiding citizen. How many of us are prepared to report road offences to the police? Even when citizens do make such a report or complaint, how often is further action taken by the Garda? And even when such offenders are prosecuted, how many of them manage to escape the consequences because of failure to adhere to correct legal procedures in prosecution?
How often is only the minimum penalty and disqualification imposed by the courts when offenders have been convicted of serious traffic offences?
And a final question: why does the Oireachtas not provide judges with sufficient power to impose adequate deterrents on people who are likely at some future date to cause death or serious injuries to others by their style of driving? If the owner of a shotgun shows himself to be easily roused to rage, the law provides a means for the Garda to have his firearm certificate revoked by the courts. This has been done frequently in the past and lives have possibly been saved as a result.
But the holder of a driving licence can be at liberty to drive a motor vehicle, even though temperamentally inclined to fly into a rage at the least provocation, and there is no way provided by law to deprive him of his driving licence. Even if he is convicted of a serious assault, the courts have no power to disqualify him (unless he was convicted of a road offence, or a motor vehicle was used in the assault). Which TD will introduce a private member's bill to rectify this?
Generally, even where the court is required to impose a mandatory disqualification, only the minimum period is imposed, and only too often the disqualification is lifted after six months. - Yours, etc.,
Dalkey, Co Dublin.