Minister warns councils over state of roads

The Minister of State at the Department of Transport has warned county councils that they must ensure local roads in their regions consistently meet required standards, or face possible legal action.

Ivor Callely said while good progress was being made on aspects of the Road Safety Strategy, the issue of engineering on local roads needed attention as "this is where we are slipping somewhat".

Mr Callely said when seeking to identify the cause of road crashes "we have to look at the engineering, at the vehicle and at the local road network".

"I would say in the case of a serious accident where a crash investigation is carried out and it is clearly seen that a significant contributory factor to the accident was road engineering, that a motor insurance company would pursue, in the best interest of protecting their own fund and that of the motorists, a fall back claim on that local authority."

The Minister said the issue of temporary road surfaces had been raised with him in relation to the death of Aisling Gallagher (22) after her car apparently skidded on a temporary road surface in Mulranny, Co Mayo, last December.

It has also been suggested that a Bus Éireann school bus may also have skidded on a temporary surface before it crashed in Co Meath on Monday, May 23rd. Five schoolgirls died in the crash.

"Evidence-based information is crucial to ensure that you have an adequate response. We need to know the finer details of the accident. We need to know the standard of the car, the road, the conditions, all the factors," he said.

The response to this evidence-based information had, he told Motors, led to the measures included in the Road Safety Strategy, the introduction of the National Car Test and the Driver Theory Test for learner drivers.

All of these - at their introduction - had an impact on road deaths and injuries, he said.

In conjunction with structural changes like reorganising driver training under the new Driver Testing and Standards Authority Bill 2004, Mr Callely added that he was also looking at measures that could be introduced quickly, such as increasing the required tread depth on car tyres.

"The default tyre tread level is an issue that has been brought to my attention. Are we allowing a tyre to be passed if it is on 1.6mm tread? Do we tell them that they need to change their tyres? If we don't, do they then travel for anther two years, or 50,000 miles on tyres below the legal limit?"

Minister Callely said he was considering raising of the tread depth from 1.6mm to at least 2mm, a move which would require drivers to replace their tyres more frequently.

Industry studies have found that a car travelling at 80km/h will require an extra 13 metres to stop with the minimum tread, compared with a new set of tyres.

Any change in the tyre tread required of motorists would be linked to the current review of the NCT review which is currently being completed by Pricewaterhousecoopers.

Mike Kemp, chief executive of the Irish Insurance Federation said the road surface remained a less significant factor in crashes than driver or human error.

"As regards the state of the roads surface, it is very much a minor one. The state of the road is always examined by crash investigators but it is rarely found to be the primary cause. Research suggests that the cause is usually driver error or human error."