[Article] Cash row 'is claiming 100 lives on roads every year'

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/3866186?view=Eircomnet

Cash row 'is claiming 100 lives on roads every year'
From:The Irish Independent
Wednesday, 25th August, 2004

ONE hundred lives are being lost on Irish roads every 12 months as a result of a cash row between government departments, the head of the State's National Safety Council said yesterday.

As death statistics continued to rocket, Eddie Shaw slammed the "utter stupidity" of not providing for a nationwide network of promised speed cameras and back up administration to go hand in hand with penalty points.

It has also emerged:

* The legislation for a network of private speed cameras is contained in the Government's Road Traffic Bill - but Dail debate on it was shelved until the autumn so that the Government could rush through the Aer Rianta Bill as this was considered more important.

* Thousands of motorists from the North are still able to recklessly speed in the Republic without getting penalty points as there is no North-South deal on imposing points on drivers in neighbouring jurisdictions.

* The Government's new Road Safety Strategy to replace the last one which expired in 2002 was ready last October - it has had to be translated into Irish before it can be published.

Twenty more people have been killed so far this year as were killed in the same period last year when fear of penalty points was still fresh in people's minds. Ireland currently has one of the worst road death tolls in Europe.

Mr Shaw said the numbers being killed fell to 20 a month during the first four months after the introduction of penalty pints in November 2002, a figure comparable with countries which had the lowest number of road deaths such as Sweden, parts of the UK and Victoria in Australia. But there followed an inexorable climb in deaths after motorists found there was not as much enforcement as they expected.

Mr Shaw said: "It was utter stupidity not to plan in advance for investment in the technology you are going to need to implement the penalty points system.

"The departments of Finance and Justice fought with each other for years. The direct consequence of that row is the loss of one hundred lives a year and serious injuries amounting to between 800 and 1,000 in our communities."

The row between the departments over funding for the garda penalty points dragged on for months before it was exposed in Irish Independent and an embarrassed Cabinet ordered the money to be provided.

Niall Doyle, Irish Insurance Federation corporate affairs manager, said yesterday that while the penalty points legislation had been excellent, "legislation without enforcement is a waste of time".

A Department of Transport spokesperson said that penalty points were working and had saved as many as 100 lives in the 21 months since they were introduced.

The focus was to improve driver behaviour.

A major new report meanwhile showed that hundreds of lives can be saved by installing speed cameras nationwide. Michael Maguire, of PA Consulting in Ireland, which carried out the three-year research said it showed a 40pc reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites. Recent figures for the North show that deaths and serious injuries have fallen by 27pc on roads where safety cameras were used.

Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent

Tommy Vercetti

The legislation for a network of private speed cameras is contained in the Government's Road Traffic Bill - but Dail debate on it was shelved until the autumn so that the Government could rush through the Aer Rianta Bill as this was considered more important.

Private speed cameras located on safe roads will not cut road deaths, they will make huge profits for private companies, a la NTR.

sliabh

Tommy Vercetti wrote:

Private speed cameras located on safe roads will not cut road deaths, they will make huge profits for private companies, a la NTR.

They might encourage people to slow down though, and that wouldn't be a bad thing wherever it happens. And if there is no money to be had on main roads then the cameras will start to appear on the side roads.

Looking at the debate about the cameras in the UK I am surprised that people seem to feel they have a right to drive at any speed they like. As long as it's a "safe" road then the view seems to be that the government should not be putting cameras in their way. It's a bit reminiscent of the attitude to drink driving when the first campaigns were run.