Despite a greater awareness of road safety than ever, speeding figures remain dangerously high, according to a report by the RSA, writes Patrick Logue
WHEN THE Government's team of private enforcers takes to the roads to catch speeding motorists later this year, they won't have far to look.
Every type of roadhas large numbers of motorists breaking the legal speed limit. This is despite years of road safety campaigns and the threat of penalty points, not to mention the risk of injury or death.
On motorways, for example, the new speed checkers will be able to pick off the one in five who choose to break the speed limit, and the 30 per cent who break the speed limit on dual carriageways will be fair game.
But there would be little point in doing so other than to collect revenue - it certainly won't have a significant impact on road safety. Data shows that, despite high speeds, motorways are the safest roads we have.
The Road Safety Authority's (RSA) Road Collision Facts booklet released last month shows that less than 6 per cent of fatal or injury crashes occurred on a motorway or a dual carriageway. The same booklet shows that almost 77 per cent of fatal or injury crashes occurred on two-way single roads.
Last week's RSA survey reveals a worrying trend in relation to speeding on roads outside our small dual carriageway and motorway network. National roads represent only a small proportion of our road network but see much of the traffic.
On national secondary routes 13 per cent of motorists broke the 100km/h limit, while 27 per cent did so on national primary routes, also with a 100km/h limit. Both figures represent increases of four percentage points at a time when road safety awareness has never been greater.
In urban areas, where the potential for pedestrian injury and death is highest, a large number of motorists continue to speed. On urban national roads, busy roads passing through urban areas, 82 per cent of cars surveyed broke the 50km/h limit. This is a drop of seven percentage points, but remains extremely high. A total of 89 per cent broke the 60km/h limit and 86 per cent broke the 50km/h limit on arterial roads.Arterial roads are roads on the outskirts of villages or towns, many of which have not been bypassed during recent road building.
The percentage of cars breaking the 50km/h limit on residential roads more than doubled from 20 per cent in 2005 to 47 per cent, and also represents a worrying trend in terms of pedestrian safety.
In urban areas, the average free speed of cars was well above the set limits. Free speed is defined as the speed at which a driver chooses to travel on a straight road, in optimum conditions. The average speed of a car passing through an urban area on a national road was 75km/h, according to the survey, 25km/h above the limit.
The figures show that few truck drivers are sticking to the 80km/h limit imposed on them on motorways and dual carriageways. The number breaking the speed limit on motorways dropped from 94 to 89 per cent and from 87 to 69 per cent on dual carriageways.
On national secondary roads the percentage of those offending rose from 48 to 58 per cent, and from 83 to 87 per cent on national primary routes. However, on regional roads, 9 per cent of articulated truck drivers broke the limit, compared with 45 per cent in 2005.
Motorcycles are also seen widely breaking the speed limit, with an average free speed of 68km/h on national roads in urban areas, with a 50km/h limit.
The RSA survey was conducted in 2006 across the country. The recently-published road safety strategy drew on the figures in yesterday's survey and has set some difficult targets on speeding, to be met by 2012. The aim is to increase compliance with speed limits on national roads in urban areas from 18 to 60 per cent for cars and from 33 to 70 per cent for heavy goods vehicles.
But the State's current system of speed enforcement won't help achieve this. Almost 200,000 motorists are caught annually but many escape prosecution because of backlogs in the courts, because they are driving foreign-registered cars, or even because bylaws have not been put in place correctly.
This does not help instill confidence in speed checks, the number of which is set to radically increase if stated Government objectives come to pass. By the end of 2008, the Government plans to have a network of private speed cameras in operation. A new efficiently-run private firm will provide 6,000 hours monthly of speed checks around the State.
The motoring public has been assured that speed checks will only be carried out in crash-prone locations. But the decisions on when and where to site cameras will be left to the gardaí, who have not been averse to mounting checks on empty three-lane motorways that have never seen a crash.