Put driver education on school curriculum, meeting told

Oireachtas Committee on Transport: Driver education should be put on the curriculum of second-level schools, as part of the effort to combat road deaths - particularly among the young - members of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport said yesterday.

Opening the second day of hearings by an Oireachtas committee on road deaths, committee chairman John Ellis said driver education could help young people to be aware of the dangers of driving, particularly at night or early morning - traditionally the risk hours for young drivers.

Mr Ellis and other committee members had a problem with the Government's proposals to "outsource" speed cameras to the private sector.

The effectiveness of radar guns and cameras had been seriously flawed in Britain and he feared the deployment of speed cameras in the Republic "could become an industry in itself".

Referring to the danger that a private firm might place cameras where they would generate most revenue as opposed to where they might slow down traffic, Mr Ellis said the system "could be anti-road user. People could be prosecuted for being 1km over the limit."

Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell also questioned "outsourcing for the sake of it" which she said would be a "complete waste of time".

Independent Senator David Norris said the reason so many young people were involved in collisions was the "totally chaotic, incoherent, unsustainable system of speed limits".

Part of the problem was inappropriate speed limits but also a lack of enforcement which allowed a driver "to obey the limit while being passed by cars on the right and maybe a lorry on the left with another car flashing behind you."

He agreed with Mr Ellis that driver education should start in schools but should involve "a system we can all respect".

Assistant Garda Commissioner Eddie Rock said outsourcing was a political decision but on speed detection, he said gardaí did not want to be "jumping out of a bush or hiding behind a bus shelter". He believed there was "a balance to be struck between covert and overt" detection.