Cullen blames speed limit violations for road death rise

Hard-hitting road safety advertisements on television were being ignored by motorists and new ways of getting road safety messages across would have to be considered, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen has said.

Responding to the latest National Roads Authority (NRA) statistics which show drivers are now more than eight times more likely to break speed limits than they were on the introduction of penalty points, Mr Cullen said such behaviour was largely responsible for the current carnage.

A total of 41 people were killed on the State's roads last month, a seven-year high for the month of January, and eight more than January 2005.

Commenting as he launched the new Railway Safety Commission in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Mr Cullen said "if drivers actually behaved within the speed limits we wouldn't be having the appalling deaths on the roads that we are witnessing today".

Mr Cullen said speeding lorries and buses were "utterly unacceptable". He added: "One of the things that is happening is that trucks are breaking the speed limit and then if somebody is trying to pass a truck they are breaking the speed limit by a substantial margin and that is causing the problems on the road. You then get into very unsafe zones, people lose control of their vehicle and people are being sadly killed or injured. It is just appalling."

He also said people not wearing seatbelts "was just unacceptable", remarking that the campaigns that the National Safety Council had run over previous years had been "very stark, very much to the point, but people seem to have ignored them. We have obviously got to look at that to see what other ways we can get the message across."

The Minister also clarified the position with regard to tolling on the M50.

"The immediate position now is that we are going to remove the plaza and we are going to replace that with a single-point free-flowing toll on the M50."

The planning permission for the M50 extension had stipulated that a demand management study be carried out - but that was a study and not an immediate requirement for tolling. While he said there would be "clearly implications for 10 or 15 years' time", Mr Cullen added that in 2008 there would be only one barrier-free toll and the study would inform how the tolling arrangement should then continue.

Speaking later on RTÉ's Today with Pat Kenny, Mr Cullen said he was playing "hardball" with National Toll Roads over the West-Link toll operation. He was supportive of any court action the NRA might take against National Toll Roads to enforce a contractual obligation to have "adequate toll facilities" at West-Link.

The Railway Safety Commission launched yesterday is to be headed by John Welsby, who is to be known as the railway safety commissioner. He remarked that the legislation establishing his office made rail safety an important consideration for rail users as well as operators.

Olivia Kelly writes: Dublin City Council intends to pay less than €1.5 million to householders whose homes have been damaged by the construction of the Dublin Port Tunnel. A total of 238 householders living near the tunnel works have made claims against the council for damage to their homes, including cracks in walls, ceilings and floors.

Some 129 repairs have been completed to date and the remaining claims are the subject of "ongoing settlement negotiations", city manager John Fitzgerald said. However, the council now estimates the total cost of repair claims will be less than €1.5 million.

If all the outstanding claims are accepted by the council, the residents in Marino, Fairview and Whitehall, whose homes are most directly affected by tunnelling damage, will receive an average of just €6,000.

However, residents believe the council has severely underestimated the repair bills and is likely to face total costs of around €3 million.