Sir, - I read your Editorial "Rash of Road Deaths" (September 11th) with interest. It may baffle you, as it does me, that a national motorcycling organisation with over 2,300 individual members and 30 member clubs is never consulted nor invited onto relevant safety planning committees. We are the recognised body for road-going motorcycling.
Our record in promoting motorcycling safety is well known; producing the safety booklet "The Right Way" and organising its free issue to every Irish motorcyclist; fostering the provision of quality, accessible and affordable rider training. Very soon we will be launching a high-profile, hard-hitting, poster campaign. In this year alone we have done far more to promote safety issues than any other group of roads users.
As vulnerable road users we are very conscious of the need to improve road safety. In two-thirds of accidents in which a motorcycle is involved, the primary cause is the other vehicle. We do not like visiting our members in hospital or burying them. Yet when we approach State bodies concerned with roads safety, months can go by before we receive any reply and then it is the traditional "thank you for your letter, which is receiving attention."
If the powers that be really are seriously interested in tackling our roads accidents and safety issues, it is time they recognised the fact that all road users have to be involved. We have a serious problem: together much can be done to tackle it. The time for ritual hand-wringing in Dail Eireann and lofty sound bites from safety gurus is long past. - Yours, etc., John Wheeler,
General secretary, MAG Ireland, The Irish Motorcyclists' Action Group, PO Box 4491, Dublin 1.