Half of road deaths 'preventable'

About half the deaths on the Republic's roads in 2004 were "entirely preventable" and resulted from policy failure at the highest levels of Government, the chairman of the National Safety Council said yesterday.

Eddie Shaw said there was an "international norm" based on population by which about 20 road deaths per month might occur in the Republic.

But "about 380 people will die on our roads this year and we estimate about 3,000 will be seriously injured. That is 144 deaths and about 1,200 serious injuries more than it should be," he said.

Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business which is compiling an insurance sector report, Mr Shaw insisted the deaths and injuries were "entirely preventable and we know from a policy perspective exactly what to do".

Later yesterday, the Garda Press Office confirmed that a Traffic Corps Unit would be established on a pilot basis at Burnfoot Garda station in Co Donegal from 7am today.

Over the past 18 months, 25 people have died on the peninsula's roads, 20 of them aged under 30. The weekend before last, six young people were killed in two separate crashes near Muff.

The Garda Press Office said last night that the unit would "assist local gardaí in their efforts to reduce and prevent road fatalities in that area. ". . .The unit will commence a three month pilot in the Donegal Division. The Traffic Corps Unit will concentrate their activities in the Inishowen Peninsula. This unit has been established as part of An Garda Síochána's commitment to road safety."

Earlier, Mr Shaw said there were many Government agencies involved in aspects of road safety but no single accountable person in charge "because politicians see accountability as blame".

He said recent dramatic reductions in fatal road accidents in France had come about because French premier Jacques Chirac had personally taken responsibility for the project. Mr Chirac spearheaded a multi-agency road safety programme which reduced speed limits, increased enforcement, and introduced a computerised penalty system.

Mr Shaw said that in Ireland "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 said his comments were not "an exercise in blaming or criticising Government alone"; it was "much more serious.

"We were nearly there in 2003 [ with the introduction of penalty points] but the investment was not sustained and this policy failure has resulted to date in a total of 1,000 serious injuries and lives lost."

Road safety despite its uncontested economic benefits was treated "as just another cost", he said. That is why this year we will allow 140 people to die and 1,200 to suffer serious life changing injury."

Mr Shaw warned politicians that unless the process changed, the Government's proposed Road Safety Authority would "become another administrative construct - like the National Safety Council today - trapped in a failed and fatally flawed process - a process that is in every sense corrupt - it has no integrity."

Assistant Garda Commissioner Edward Rock told the committee there were 9,050 drink driving arrests to September 30th this year, a 15 per cent rise on last year.