Dublin roads now safest in Europe, claims authority

DUBLIN NOW has the safest roads of any capital city in Europe, the Road Safety Authority has claimed. The fatality rate has dropped thanks partly to the controversial 30km/h enforcement zone in the city centre, according to the Garda.

Seven people have been killed on Dublin’s roads so far this year and none since June. By this stage last year, 13 people had been killed.

At the unveiling of a Garda casualty reduction implementation plan, which will include a crackdown on jaywalking, the head of the Road Safety Authority Noel Brett said recent figures showed how successful Dublin had been in reducing the number of road crash victims.

According to the European Transport Safety Council report, Dublin has achieved a 12 per cent annual reduction in casualty numbers in the last 10 years.

Mr Brett said the reduction was for several reasons, including greater enforcement by the Garda traffic corps, the ban on HGV trucks in the city centre and a huge increase in the volume of cyclists, which tended to slow down motorists.

Chief Supt Aidan Reid, head of the Dublin metropolitan area traffic corps, said the 30km/h enforcement zone was a success.

He cited international research which showed that just 5 per cent of those hit at 30km/h were killed, rising to 45 per cent at 50km/h and 85 per cent for those hit by a vehicle at 60km/h.

However, he said it was being implemented as a traffic-calming measure rather than as an enforcement measure. “We’re looking for compliance strictly in that area,” he said. “I believe the 30 kilometre zone has been very helpful in focusing people’s minds as they move into the vulnerable area where pedestrian and pedal cyclists are meeting the car driver.”

It has also emerged that the number of road fatalities in the Republic as a whole is likely to dip below 200 this year for the first time since records began.

To date, 136 people have been killed on the roads in 2011. The equivalent figure this time last year was 151.

Other figures show that nearly 40 per cent of people who are convicted of dangerous driving have a criminal record. Approximately 22 per cent of those killed on the roads are pedestrians.

The Garda will introduce a casualty reduction implementation plan from tomorrow for eight weeks to coincide with October and November, when traditionally there is a spike in collisions in Dublin.

The campaign will be particularly focused on speeding, especially in 30km/h and 50km/h zones.

Gardaí on bicycles will aim to prevent jaywalking, particularly at busy junctions where pedestrians are likely to break the lights.

More than three-quarters of those who are killed or involved in a serious incident in Dublin are so-called “vulnerable road users” – pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists.

The campaign will focus on the areas of greater Dublin where there has been the greatest number of fatal and serious injury crashes, at Finglas, Blanchardstown, Ronanstown and Tallaght.

Vulnerable road users will be targeted through education, including the use of safety messages on both Dublin City Council and National Roads Authority variable message signs, as well as more awareness campaigns, most notably an “It won’t happen to me” road safety programme at senior secondary school level.

CAR 'ALCO-LOCKS' - DRIVERS MAY HAVE TO PAY

Drink-driving motorists could be forced to pay for and install a device in their car which would lock the ignition if they were over the limit, according to proposals being considered by the Government.

Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett said the addition of an extra sentencing option for drink drivers could act as a deterrent, particularly to those who had an underlying alcohol problem or who had driven while considerably over the limit.

On Wednesday, MEPs, sitting in Strasbourg, adopted a report which recommended that the so-called “alco-lock” be made mandatory in new cars.

The “alco-lock” would pertain to all new cars and there was no provision of retro-fitting such devices in all cars.

Mr Brett revealed that all the agencies involved in road safety and the Garda were working on the possibility of including the sanction of an “alco-lock” which would could add hundreds of euros to the potential cost for motorists who are over the limit.

He said it was important that the State not be burdened with the cost of fitting such a device.