A spate of horrifying road accidents culminating in the deaths of two children and three adults killed in a head-on collision between a school mini-bus and a lorry in Co Wicklow in September 1998, spurred the Government to apparent action about the level of fatalities on our roads.
On September 16th, 1998, a spokesman for the Government said it was "pressing ahead" with the implementation of its "road safety strategy". A Government statement was issued calling on all road users to keep their speed within legal limits and to be mindful of all aspects of road safety.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, briefed colleagues on the multiple fatalities in Co Wicklow. The road safety strategy, announced two months earlier, would be implemented "in all its elements as quickly as possible".
The new strategy "aimed to cut road accidents by 20 per cent within five years". The 20 per cent "strategy" would appear to have been a reference to the EU directive, drawn up by the then Commissioner Mr Neil Kinnock, for a progressive reduction in road deaths in each member-state by 20 per cent per annum over the five years 1998-2002. The Government's somewhat lower target should bring the then total of 452 road deaths in 1998 down to about 36 this year.
The latest spate of road deaths, including five deaths in two accidents this week alone has brought the total so far this year (at the time of writing yesterday afternoon) to 358. Up to yesterday there were 20 road deaths in November, one a day. The total before the end of the year, including the traditional bloody Christmas season, may take the total over 400.
One of the key measures in the Government's 1998 strategy was a promise to introduce legislation before the end of that year to allow the development of a penalty points system for driving offences.
The penalty point system has been in place in Northern Ireland for several years and has proved to be a deterrent.
It is an incremental form of control in that a speeding driver will receive a fine and a three-point penalty for a first offence. At five points a driver's insurance begins to be weighted and at 12 points the licence is revoked.
Another key element of the strategy to reduce speeding was the introduction of speeding cameras at fixed sites on busy roads. There are some 22 of these "fixed sites" but it is understood only three or four cameras are actually in use, being moved from site to site.
The garda∅ operate a massive on-the-spot fine system, with over 250,000 £50 fines issued this year alone, and this is a deterrent.
However, the missing element in bringing the automated cameras, the penalty points and the processing of fines and endorsements has been the legislation to establish the system and the computer system and staff to administer it.
The legislation being brought before the Dβil tomorrow will attempt to establish the legal basis for introducing a system under which garda∅ will issue fines and endorse people's licenses without recourse to the courts. The Republic's written Constitution is tilted against such "executive" acts by arms of the State other than the courts. There will unquestionably be appeals against the introduction of the system.
There are also major difficulties over setting up an accurate register of drivers by the Department of the Environment.
The current available data on drivers in this State is inadequate. Under the law, garda∅ cannot use people's PRSI numbers to identify them for purposes of prosecutions. The list of drivers is sub-standard. It is hoped a "unique identifier" system which will stop the multiple use of licences will emerge which will provide a basis for the introduction of the penalty points system.
The progress of the legislation is likely to be slow because of the constitutional and legal complexities involved. The building of the data base of drivers and the introduction of the technology to allow the automatic issuing of fines and endorsements will also take time, possibly years.
The introduction of these measures has been shown to work towards dramatically reducing road deaths. The example that inspired the Garda and the Department of the Environment to seek the introduction of the penalty and camera system was that of the state of Victoria in Australia. In 1989, with a population similar to this State's, it suffered 777 road deaths.
The new systems were put in place with a major, sustained policing and publicity campaign. Within two years the death rate dropped to 400 and has stayed below that figure since.
While the painstakingly slow process of introducing the same system takes place in this State there will be many other weeks like this one on the roads.
Jim Cusack is Security Editor of The Irish Times