Government commitment to road safety criticised

The proposed Road Safety Authority is in danger of becoming "just another administrative construct" the chairman of the National Safety Council (NSC) Eddie Shaw has said.

The new authority, which is being set up to incorporate the NSC and assume road safety responsibility from the National Roads Authority and the Department of Transport among others, is due to come into force next year. Minister for Transport Martin Cullen has said he hopes to introduce legislation to establish the authority before the end of the year.

However, Mr Shaw, who has spent six years as chairman of the NSC, said the NSC was itself "trapped in a failed and fatally flawed process" and he warned the new authority could suffer a similar fate.

At the core of Mr Shaw's criticism is his assertion that about half of the expected 380 road deaths this year could be avoided if the Government properly resourced the road safety strategy. Last week he became the second successive chairman of the NSC to approach the end of his term in office amid criticism of the Government's commitment to road safety. He said the Government saw road safety simply as a cost. "But you must spend the money in Departments like Transport and Justice and Education and you get the benefits in Health and Welfare and Enterprise and Finance".

Mr Shaw said there was no process to evaluate the benefits. "No-one joins up the thinking, no-one is responsible, no-one is accountable, there is no will, no management, there is no such process", he claimed.

"That is why penalty points were launched in November 2002 without the necessary technology and administration support to sustain the results - after the Departments of Justice and Finance spent 18 months arguing over the allocation of resources to design the specification of a computer system.

"That is why this year we will allow 140 people to die and 1,200 to suffer serious life changing injury - and this will continue until we change the way we do things."

Referring specifically to the proposed new authority, Mr Shaw said it had the potential to radically improve the management and implementation of the Government's Road Safety Strategy. But he said for this to happen the authority "must operate in a radically different legal and operational context - specifically in relation to governance, autonomy, funding, people, and systems. In other words, the process that supports the authority has to change. At this time, there is no indication that this will happen".

The legislation promised by Mr Cullen will also provide for the State-wide deployment of speed cameras and random breath testing of drivers. Both these measures were initially due to be introduced in 1999 as part of the then road safety strategy.

The current road safety strategy 2004 to 2006 aims to reduce road deaths to less than 300, but safety experts including the gardaí expect numbers to reach about 380 this year.