A TRAINING programme for learner drivers, guidance for the parents of young drivers and increased speed checks and mandatory alcohol checks are among the measures in the Donegal road safety strategy, which aims to more than halve road fatalities in the county by 2015.
The five-year strategy aims to reduce road fatalities in Donegal to no more than nine per annum by 2015 in line with national and European casualty reduction targets.
This is down from a total of 19 deaths recorded in the county so far in 2010, eight of which occurred on the Inishowen peninsula in July in what was the single worst crash on Ireland’s roads since records began.
Insp Michael Harrison, head of traffic in Letterkenny Garda division, said enforcement and education are key to improving road safety in Donegal.
The percentage of under-25s who have died in road traffic incidents nationally last year stood at 35 per cent, he noted, whereas in Donegal that figure stood at 50 per cent of the 14 road fatalities in 2009. In 2010 so far, the percentage of fatalities among under-25s stands at 63 per cent.
Extra resources have been put in place in recent months both regionally and through the Garda National Bureau including extra personnel, vehicles and use of Road Safety Authority personnel and PSV inspectors who have carried out roadside vehicle checks.
These resources have all fed into Operation Face – launched in mid August – which uses a multi-agency approach to target all motoring offences in Donegal, no matter how minor.
“The whole thrust of the operation is that you don’t have a right to drive your car, it is a privilege.
“If you don’t want to lose that privilege you have to obey the rules of the road,” said Insp Harrison.
In addition to this operation, the Garda traffic corps has been operating outside schools to target younger drivers while Donegal has been designated with the highest number of speed camera locations in a recently rolled out mobile speed-enforcement network.
Insp Harrison said there was a hard-core element of irresponsible drivers in Donegal and it was hoped these ongoing operations would target such behaviour.
He said that while plans for extra road safety strategies in Donegal had been in train before the tragedy on the Inishowen peninsula in July, the crash had focused Garda efforts: “To lose eight people in one road traffic accident is horrendous. You can’t allow that to happen again. The entire community of Inishowen was distraught . . . that really is the motivation.”
Regional road safety engineer for the northwest region, Stephen Lambert, says Donegal County Council is “working continuously” to improve road safety in the county.
Mr Lambert said this was borne out by figures which show that people are 22 times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision between 3am and 4am on a weekend night than at any other time.
“The people who socialise at that time of the night are young people,” he said, adding that in sparsely populated areas with a lack of public transport young people depended on their cars to socialise with their peers, often travelling long distances.