The disclosure that some 80 per cent of front seat car deaths are caused by back seat passengers who are not wearing seat belts is one of the more startling pieces of information which ought to inform the continuing debate about our lamentable record of traffic fatalities.
As Professor Denis Cusack noted in yesterday's editions of this newspaper, when a car travelling at 30 miles per hour comes to a sudden halt, any other objects inside the vehicle that are not strapped down will carry on moving forward at 30 miles per hour. As emergency workers, doctors, witnesses and coroners up and down the State can testify, the end results are appalling. And yet the prevention of all this is so simple, so commonsense. Except that, judging by the evidence of everyday observation , few drivers insist that their rear seat passengers - even when frequently those passengers are their own children - wear seatbelts. This disregard for the safety and wellbeing of both their passengers and themselves bespeaks a more general attitude that, somehow, accidents happen to other people.
The statistics say otherwise. We should take very little comfort from the news that road deaths for 2001 were, at 409, a reduction of six on the previous year. For sure, there are six people alive today who would not be, had results matched those for 2000. And 1997 stands as the worst year in recent years, with 472 deaths recorded. But all these figures, including last year's, still place this State's record among the very worst in Europe. Despite all the publicity last year, it is clear that many drivers, and very many of them young male drivers, retain a reckless attitude when it comes to speed and general behaviour on the roads. And while 409 deaths last year means great grief and pain for all the families concerned, there will be hundreds of other individuals who will have to go through medical procedures for years before they are able to resume normal lives. Some will never do so.
This weekend marks the end of the garda's annual Christmas anti-drink driving campaign - a campaign that seems to some people more like an annual 'let's enforce the law for a few weeks' approach to the problem. Redoubled efforts are, of course, welcome. However, it seems apparent that until the authorities - the garda, the courts and, crucially, parents and friends (social pressure must not be underestimated) - enforce existing road traffic laws without fear or favour, last year's 400 plus will be matched by a similar number in the year just begun.