Time to disband the RSA?

Johnny Utah · 19-07-2010 05:43PM #1

What do the Road Safety Authority actually do (apart from running sexist ad campaigns on the radio)?

It seems to me that the RSA are the ultimate quango, and are more concerned in revenue generation and preserving their own existence rather than engaging in meaningful road safety improvement.

Is it time to get rid of the Road Safety Authority?

Maybe spend their budget on improving roads or filling in potholes?

mickdw · 19-07-2010 06:06PM

Gay byrne has no business on it.

gbee · 19-07-2010 06:13PM

I'd actually agree.

Nonsensical ad campaigns which has more the bemusing factor to outright clown factor and total incredibility.

Watching the kid being rolled over n his garden is fantastic ... we had the most hysterical laugh at that all the time.

And don't get me started on that northern Ireland dyke ...

JonathanAnon · 19-07-2010 06:23PM

Was thinking the same thing when I heard Gay Byrne talking on the radio about the Donegal crash last week. They really have no teeth to do anything constructive... They seem to focus singularly on changing legislation for drink driving, when their own ads even say that texting while driving is MORE dangerous than drink driving and their own stats show that it is drivers between 17-24 that are predominately involved in fatal crashes..

Gaybo was saying that they got thousands of texts after the aforementioned crash suggesting i) curfew for younger drivers ii) limit on engine size for younger drivers.... but said nothing about having any intention of lobbying to have these or any other helpful restrictions brought in to legislation...

I think they should be renamed the Road Sympathies Association, because that is all they ever seem to do.

CantGetNoSleep · 19-07-2010 06:25PM

Two people getting it on up again a wall in the back arse of nowhere, unlucky enough to be hit by a flying car

stimpson · 19-07-2010 06:30PM

+1

God forbid they do anything useful like teach people how to use a motorway or tell people to turn on their headlights when it's raining. Gay Byrne should be put out to pasture and they should get someone who can do the job

Absurdum · 19-07-2010 06:33PM

decommission gaybo, disband the RSA, equal rights for young drivers NOW

bmw535d · 19-07-2010 06:34PM

i really think it should be an ex Sergeant at the head of the rsa instead of an old hand shaker that spent 40 years in a studio that has never drove a car in his life, a sergeant would have 40 years of experience on the roads at least he would have a clue what he's on about.

zuroph · 19-07-2010 06:36PM

If the RSA JUST got local councils to get rid of those stupid "slow lane ahead" and similar signs, and update them with something that actually fits in with the rules of the road, I'd sing their praises.

TheInquisitor · 19-07-2010 06:37PM

Number of Staff in RSA 170

Wages and expenses for 2009 were 5,436000 and 351000 respectively

Average Wage of someone working for the RSA in 2009 was E31,976. Average expenses were E2064

They spent 1609000 on capital expenditure e.g. road signs etc

They spent 55,948,000 on current expenditure e.g. advertising.

Total expenditure for 2009 was 66,189,000.

There was a drop in deaths during this period of 59. So the question is what is the value of someone's life? Is it 1,121,847?

Here are the facts and the figures, took me a few min to break down from this document page 25 onwards

http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=12421&lang=ENG&loc=1512

If the value of someone's life is less than the figure above then the RSA should be abolished. If its above it should be kept. However let me point out the law of diminishing returns will set in incredibly quickly. For instance there is no way the number of road deaths will drop by 59 again in a year .

So is someone's life worth more than 2,3,4,5 million? Maybe the RSA was a great temporary organisation to have to instill safety in Irish people, and that now is should be brought back into the transport department with a much smaller team and budget. I don't know and i'd hate to be the person that can make the decision as to the value of someone's life.

The only thing i know is there is a value...

Absurdum · 19-07-2010 06:37PM

young people are always gonna switch off/rebel against some old dude patronising them, the RSA approach, however well intentioned, is the wrong one imo

Absurdum · 19-07-2010 06:38PM

TheInquisitor wrote: »

So is someone's life worth more than 2,3,4,5 million?

yes, if it's you or someone you love

I don't love you btw :P

TheInquisitor · 19-07-2010 06:45PM

Absurdum wrote: »

yes, if it's you or someone you love

I don't love you btw :P

So the serious question then is since you have nothing to with me and don't know me, how much is my life worth and how much is your loved one realisticly worth? How much life insurance would you insure them for

tommyhaas · 19-07-2010 06:48PM

Why not let the Garda Traffic Corps take over the RSA. They're the ones with the real experience in the field, and it would also give them a duty to impose speed traps in suitable area, ie where the priority is reducing accidents as oppose to revenue generation.

Obviously major changes proposed by the Guards would have to be ratified by others before being passed to avoid a 'police state' sort of operation

Eric Cartman · 19-07-2010 06:49PM

time to send gaybo to a home , get the green party out of anything motor related and get rid of the rsa ,

Heroditas · 19-07-2010 06:51PM

Absurdum wrote: »

young people are always gonna switch off/rebel against some old dude patronising them, the RSA approach, however well intentioned, is the wrong one imo

Listening to Gaybo patronise all of is is indeed a disgrace.
Particularly when you then hear someone like Rosemary Smith on the radio this evening talk a huge amount of sense.
If the RSA were serious about promoting road safety they should employ someone like her to head up their campaigns.

stimpson · 19-07-2010 06:59PM

TheInquisitor wrote: »

So is someone's life worth more than 2,3,4,5 million? Maybe the RSA was a great temporary organisation to have to instill safety in Irish people, and that now is should be brought back into the transport department with a much smaller team and budget. I don't know and i'd hate to be the person that can make the decision as to the value of someone's life.

The only thing i know is there is a value...

And that's assuming that all the lives saved can be attributed to the RSA. We've had a huge number of motorways opened over the past few years and they are inherently safer. There is also the fact that newer cars are safer and you should see a gradual drop on deaths as older cars are scrapped. Perhaps the money spent on Gaybo's makeup could be better spent by extending the scrapage scheme

mickdw · 19-07-2010 07:06PM

There are too many adds where you can simply pick holes in what they are depicting be it the way the car crashes or whatever. The very people who will notice this are the young drivers they are targeting making the whole thing a huge waste of cash.
I think well known race/rally drivers should be drafted in, & produce something simple showing them having a puncture for example on a bend & this leading to a terrible accident. The point needs to be made to people who drive too fast that yes, we all like to hammer on & stick the car on the limit but when doing this, a tiny error or mechanical failure can be fatal no mater how good you are.

IN relation to driver training etc, this guy in donegal is an artic lorry driver I believe so he obviously has all his licences etc. He would also surely be a skillful driver in many ways however he got caught as ANY driver will if they continuously drive on the limit on the road.

I also firmly believe that there should be many many more facilities for motorsport in this country. Whatever the authorities do, young people will always want to go fast in cars. If there were safe, cheap locations for trackdays, drifting etc it might remove a certain amount of lunacy from the road.

Sandwlch · 19-07-2010 07:16PM

RSA doing a great job. Hope they keep up the excellent progress.

On the financial aspect, aside from the human cost, each serious road accident costs in the region of 2,000,000, so RSA a net contributor to the nations financial wealth.

number10a · 19-07-2010 07:19PM

stimpson wrote: »

God forbid they do anything useful like teach people how to use a motorway or tell people to turn on their headlights when it's raining. Gay Byrne should be put out to pasture and they should get someone who can do the job

Why is it that it only seems to be white, silver and grey cars that do not do this? Do they enjoy the adrenaline rush of driving around invisible to their fellow drivers???

Conor_M1990 · 19-07-2010 07:28PM

tommyhaas wrote: »

Why not let the Garda Traffic Corps take over the RSA. They're the ones with the real experience in the field, and it would also give them a duty to impose speed traps in suitable area, ie where the priority is reducing accidents as oppose to revenue generation.

Obviously major changes proposed by the Guards would have to be ratified by others before being passed to avoid a 'police state' sort of operation

Sure the Gards can barely drive themselves a days training doesnt make you a good driver there known for tailgating to try and get people to speed up to book them and Ive seen it first hand

slimjimmc · 19-07-2010 07:39PM

number10a wrote: »

Why is it that it only seems to be white, silver and grey cars that do not do this? Do they enjoy the adrenaline rush of driving around invisible to their fellow drivers???

Because you've see a few cars without lights that just happened to be white/silver/grey and associated this with their colour, then from that point on you're only looking for white/silver/grey cars without lights. It's a bit like buying a car which you think it reasonably unique in your locality only to realise there's about 10 others driving around that you never noticed before.:o

tommyhaas · 19-07-2010 08:07PM

Conor_M1990 wrote: »

Sure the Gards can barely drive themselves a days training doesnt make you a good driver there known for tailgating to try and get people to speed up to book them and Ive seen it first hand

Anyone who does something like that is an idiot. I can only assume, that that particular Garda displays these idiotic tendencies in many other areas, as well as in his traffic corps duties, and as such Im sure he's recognised as an idiot by his peers

Alot of people, myself included have had bad experiences with the Gards. Now while Iv never experienced what you described, Im gona assume any Garda who does that is an idiot.

In any organisation, there's going to be a percentage of idiots, and as the Gards are a large organisation, its inevitable that there will be a significant number of these people.

However, these people will rarely progress up the ranks for these reasons. There is no doubt plenty of intellegent Gards in the organisation who will rise through the ranks, and who IMO would be ideal heads of the RSA. These would be the people making the decisions, not the likes of the above mentioned gobsh!te

Rosser · 19-07-2010 08:40PM

Conor_M1990 wrote: »

Sure the Gards can barely drive themselves a days training doesnt make you a good driver there known for tailgating to try and get people to speed up to book them and Ive seen it first hand

That's a total fairy tale, where exactly did you see that, out the window of your Micra?

?Cee?view · 19-07-2010 08:58PM

Heroditas wrote: »

Particularly when you then hear someone like Rosemary Smith on the radio this evening talk a huge amount of sense.

What station was she on?

Conor_M1990 · 19-07-2010 10:52PM

Rosser wrote: »

That's a total fairy tale, where exactly did you see that, out the window of your Micra?

The old N3 outside Kells They where in an Unmarked Mondeo sat on my bumper Even tho the road was grand for overtaking when They finally got bored and went round me Too gards in the car. I was driving a Civic btw

The gards arent the right people to be telling people about road safety especially not the Traffic corp Ive no respect for the Traffic Corp anytime Ive to deal with them there pricks If your license tax insurance and nct is all up to date they'll try do you on something else

Get rid of the RSA and fix the roads properly thats wat should be done When we had the money we built houses instead of a proper infrastructure

tommyhaas · 19-07-2010 11:38PM

Conor_M1990 wrote: »

Get rid of the RSA and fix the roads properly thats wat should be done When we had the money we built houses instead of a proper infrastructure

Slight flaw in your logic there. You see the supply of houses was driven by the demand for them, that is people were willing to take out 35 yr mortgages to pay for them

Roads tend not to receive the same level of interest, crazy I know, but there just dosent seem to be people willing to spend €400,000+ on their own roads

Vertakill · 19-07-2010 11:45PM

Sandwlch wrote: »

On the financial aspect, aside from the human cost, each serious road accident costs in the region of 2,000,000, so RSA a net contributor to the nations financial wealth.

What?!? Each major road accident costs 2m euro? I find that hard to believe.

What I would like to know is how much money is being spent on the RSA and what they're doing to warrant that money and could that money be better used on actually improving road safety instead of the witch hunting of youngfellas in civics.

The RSA seem like the most expensive and determined troll attempt ever.
Every time they're mentioned on boards it causes flame wars and they ARE headed by Gay Byrne after all.

tommyhaas · 19-07-2010 11:57PM

Sandwlch wrote: »

RSA doing a great job. Hope they keep up the excellent progress.

On the financial aspect, aside from the human cost, each serious road accident costs in the region of 2,000,000, so RSA a net contributor to the nations financial wealth.

If those figures have come from the RSA, the same RSA who estimated 14 lifes per year could be saved if we all drove with our lights on, I would be quiet sceptical

Conor_M1990 · 19-07-2010 11:58PM

tommyhaas wrote: »

Slight flaw in your logic there. You see the supply of houses was driven by the demand for them, that is people were willing to take out 35 yr mortgages to pay for them

Roads tend not to receive the same level of interest, crazy I know, but there just dosent seem to be people willing to spend €400,000+ on their own roads

Well my point is when the Money was there it should of been put to better use like upgrading are road network I mean how hard is it to build a road properly every other country can seem to do it Most Backroads in this country are lethal there too narrow bumpy badly lit badly designed and managed (not enough camber for water to drain away,hedges not cut back in summe )

galwaytt · 20-07-2010 12:12AM

No point in getting personal about Gaybo, even if his style of patronage does more to alienate those they're most trying to reach than anything else........

No, we all know Rosemary Smyth is on the right track, so I'm nominating her as the new spokesperson for the RSA - but only if she gets the backing to do what she needs to do. Another ineffectual mouthpiece we don't need.......

Time to disband the RSA?

Comments