Is it possible that one day we will reach the stage when the amount of alcohol that may be taken by drivers will be reduced to zero? It may yet come. But seeing what drivers can do early in the day when only a minute proportion of them could have taken a drink at all, you would wonder. There is a basic lack of responsibility, perhaps, an unwillingness to recognise that the motor car is a lethal instrument, requiring, as with guns, a licence to use. And a frivolous disregard of the signs and warnings put up by the authorities for our own good.
To take an outlandish example: If a system of camera installations were operating in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on the main through road, the State might reap a huge amount in fines. Several times recently, going through on Sunday, it was noted that - all this in a 30 mph zone, clearly and repeatedly marked so - the driver who respected the rules (a wimp, obviously, to some of the others) was passed repeatedly by cars doing maybe 50 miles an hour, certainly over 40, in spite of double white lines: i.e. two rules broken. One speedster even honked to show derision.
Now this road is, more or less, on the doorstep of Garda Headquarters. Oodles of money waiting there for the State coffers. But the story is much the same in many parts of the country. Double white lines, indeed, are high on the list of what some drivers see as infringements on their liberty. Simple and clearing warnings that, as you roll along the countryside, you are nearing a town, are likewise much disregarded. If you do heed the advice to slow down to 40 miles an hour, you are in a minority. Quite responsible-looking citizens, not at all young hotheads, will sail past the unfortunate who is (in their eyes) daft enough to obey this simple and well-meant and official advice.
"No passing: dip in road" or words to that effect might not be there at all as far as some of our drivers are concerned. Sometimes it is hard for the wimp to repress the hope that these drivers-in-a-hurry may be found in a pile-up around the next corner. And that thought puts you into the same class as the errant speedsters, who ignore the signs. In other words, getting into a motor car is a mood-changing experience for all. Watch it.
Correction: in Monday's Eye, the author of the item on the Irish Officer was Eoghan O Hannrachain. Sorry.