Sir, - Your Editorial of June 10th concerning the National Safety Council's latest TV campaign for road safety raises some interesting questions. The campaign is aimed at young men who, according to Mr Eddie Shaw, chairman of the NSC, take risks without realising the danger of these risks. You question whether the shock tactics of a commercial showing a high-speed collision will not in time prove counter-productive as the law of diminishing returns sets in. I think that is a valid criticism, as the same advertisement has been aired in Northern Ireland for quite some time now.
You advocate that the Government should provide more finance to assist the Garda to handle evidence from speed cameras and to process the increase in on-the-spot fines. The absence of the penalty point system is also criticised.
It occurs to me that the whole issue of road safety is being approached on the basis of all drivers being offenders. In effect, good driving is to be brought about by handing out increasing penalties for bad driving. I think there is a gap in this logic and that any Government strategy should include measures to encourage better driving.
The Donegal Motor Club, to which I belong, organised a driving seminar recently in association with the Institute of Advanced Motorists, a UK-based organisation which promotes higher driving and safety standards. It provides instruction materials and an advanced driving test.
Drivers who take and pass this test have been found by the Transport Research laboratory in England to be 50 to 75 per cent less likely to have an accident which is their fault than drivers on average. As a result some insurance companies give reduced premiums to advanced drivers.
At present in Ireland good driving is not equated with any particular level of skill (or even consideration for other motorists) but with the avoidance of penalties or accidents. Yet it is better driving which will ultimately reduce the accident rate. Hard-hitting campaigns, whether aimed at young males, drunken drivers or bald tyres, can have only a limited effect, welcome though it may be.
Would it not be a positive step, therefore, to offer an incentive for better drivers? What if you were to get a 20 per cent reduction in your insurance premium for having obtained a properly accredited driving qualification? I suspect many Irish insurance companies would wince at the thought, yet the figures from the UK are available for comparison and the Government might consider helping them to share the load. If Dr Bacon's report about the cost of road deaths and injuries is correct, it would be public money very well spent.
I wish the NSC well in its campaign but I wonder if it is minded to back the call by the Donegal Motor Club for an insurance incentive scheme to encourage better driving? Might I also timidly suggest that this is an idea your paper might advert to in future Editorials or features? - Yours, etc.,
Damian Crawford, Gortlee, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.