Your Comments

To my mind, little attention is given to the safety of those who commute daily on push-bikes. Cycle lanes seem to be very, very low on the agenda as these lanes appear and disappear. One could be forgiven for thinking that these lanes are marked out in a random manner.

Patricia Fogarty

As a health and safety professional I abhor the use of the word 'freak' in media coverage to describe fatal accidents on the road (or anywhere for that matter) and it sort of suggests that the fatality would not have occurred only for some absolutely out of this world weird reason! I have been in full-time industrial and construction safety for thirty years and I have never concluded that any accident, fatal or otherwise, was freak. In the safety profession we have to believe that all accidents are caused and are preventable and the use of the word freak, while maybe giving some immediate solace to the bereaved, gives credence to someone's poor driving or poor judgement or a myriad of other possible causes of the accident. Examples in the media that "?was killed in a freak accident when the trailer came off of a lorry?" are continuing to add to the unsafe and often uncaring attitude to all categories of safety by people in this country. I would like to see an end to the use of that word in such circumstances. Promotion of good safety practices are part and parcel of my job and in respect of road safety I would like to see all the major fuel suppliers and major car manufacturers (and any other companies who would like to get in on the act) promote better road safety by the issuing of rear window stickers (free) to all vehicle road users, promoting good road safety practices.

Toddy O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

While it may be upsetting to see such information for the families concerned, can we please be told whether or not people who died in traffic accidents were wearing seatbelts or not. 3 killed in a car of 5? Sounds like they were not properly secured. Drivers of cars who are found to be at fault in an accident should be prosecuted where underage passengers are not properly secured. It's not sufficient to ignore it because "they have been through so much" or just to give them a few penalty points.

Bobby

I feel that we should be reminded of just how dangerous our roads are on a daily basis and that every time we make a journey either by car, walking or cycling we should be aware all times of the danger that's around us. What I propose is that the Government should start a bumper sticker campaign that drivers can stick to the back of their cars so every time we drive behind someone we think twice about attempting to overtake or use our phones or whatever distracts us from concentrating on the road. It's just a small idea that just might save a life or two. All proceeds from such a campaign to go towards helping people that have lost someone dear. I have a wife and three young kids and I just could not stand the thought of anything happening to them. My prayers are with that young girl's family in Wexford.

Michael Mahon, Wicklow

I am planning to move to Ireland from the UK during the next two years. Road safety in Ireland is a major worry for us and presents the highest risk of premature death. Having visited Ireland on a number of occasions, we have noticed that most of the roads have fundamental design flaws. For example, traffic joins 80kph roads via a standard "T" junction, instead of a small slip road, enabling a safer join to the main carriageway. Also, hard shoulders are informal and direct traffic against traffic waiting to join the main road. Although speed is a contributory to road deaths in Ireland, the main cause is road design.

Gary, UK

I was just glancing at your website and the first thing that caught my eye was that four people were killed on our Irish roads last night. I am so shocked by this and I feel so sorry for the poor families that have lost their loved ones. I then followed the link to the road safety page. I cannot believe that 282 people have died this year on our roads - that figure is huge and to think that a lot of those accidents could probably have been avoided! I don't believe that the Government/Gardaí are doing enough to protect our people on our roads. Where are all the speed cameras? Why is road safety not enforced in junior schools - so that our children grow to learn to respect cars & speed and human lives! In relation to speed cameras - where I am from, it is advertised where the speed cameras are - and it seems that people will drive as they want to drive, but then slow down at the cameras and then speed up again once they have passed! How pathetic is that! If the cameras were hidden and there were more of them - then that would deter people to take so many risks on the roads. All blame cannot be put on the relevant authorities for this national concern on road safety. Most of the responsibility lies with all drivers. Cars are bigger, more powerful and there are more of them on our roads now than ever before. The second one steps into a car one must remember that this car is a lethal weapon - and should be respected and driven with care. Road safety starts with the driver - and proper infrastructures for us to drive on starts with the authorities. Better roads and responsible drivers equals road safety. We ALL need to THINK before we get into our cars and be MORE CAREFUL. Life is too precious.

Lucie Coghlan

Shocking the deaths which are occurring on our roads. I feel that the featuring and interviewing of survivors helps bring the message home. Also, publishing crash site photographs however hurtful to families may help slow young drivers down.

Gary Quigley

I continue to be amazed at the level of deaths of young drivers on Irish roads and every time the answer seems to be is that your traffic police are going to clamp down on speeding drivers. Has anyone in Ireland ever thought of the reasons for these deaths and serious accidents? [It] may be [down] to the very simple fact that Ireland is the only country in the developed world that allows you to drive unaccompanied on a Provisional Licence. Isn't it time that RTÉ investigated the number of deaths of Provisional Licence holders versus the number of deaths of full licence holders, etc? Your Road Safety area on your website is excellent and really does Ireland a service, but I now believe it's time that your researchers look into the real reason for these accidents. It's not just speeding and your bad roadways; it is inexperienced drivers that is the cause of these accidents. It's your Government that is responsible and accountable, not your police force.

John Browne, London

When looking at the statistics over fatal road accidents, we have almost in each case either speeding or excess alcohol as the reason for the accident. Very seldom is it the condition of the road which is the major course, be it pot holes or slippery conditions. We treat the drink drivers too lenient. It is not good enough [that] a convicted drink driver can get his/her licence back after half the sentence has passed, and then go straight out on the roads again. Have a look at the Scandinavian countries: in Denmark there is a spell in prison, a compulsory re-sitting of the driving test and a hefty fine, and it is similar in the other Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. No one gets on the road again as easy as it happens here and there is no provision in law for shortening a sentence which has been given in court.

P. Thim

It's good that there's a lot of emphasis on people driving at unsafe speeds. I can't understand, however, why this concern is not coupled with an equal concern for driving at unsafe distances with respect to other road users. Most of the new penalty point offences have at their core a concern for inter-vehicle separation but this concern is not sloganised in the way that the rightful concern for unsafe speed is. There are so many different forms of unsafe distance, the most prominent being that involved in overtaking on single carriageway roads:

* The car to be overtaken may be tailgated for a long time

* The car being overtaken may be cut in front of as the overtaker prematurely returns to his/her own side of the road

* The overtaker may be far too close to an oncoming vehicle or to a brow or bend that conceals such

* The overtaker may be too close to the car being overtaken when he's alongside, perhaps because he's creating imaginary third lane down the middle of a single carriageway road

There are a proverbial 101 other ways of being too close, such as when turning right, or just following far too closely mile after mile for no good reason. So the slogan should always be 'don't go too fast or too close' or 'choose safe speeds and safe distances as you travel'. In rail, air and sea transport, inter-vehicle separation is of cardinal importance. In rail it's primarily achieved by engineering; in sea and air transport it's primarily achieved through driver education and enforcement. Road transport is unique in there being so little emphasis on vehicle separation as a means of reducing accidents. It's strange to see a garda or a road-safety spokesperson at the site of a ghastly head-on collision urging people just to slow down (utterly needful though that may be) and not, in addition to that, urging them to, for pity's sake, keep away from other vehicles! 'Give everyone room for safe driving and time to expect the unexpected' should in my opinion be their heartfelt plea. 'Slow down and keep a safe distance from other vehicles!'

Ian Downey

Charlie Bird did a news item highlighting the amount of people travelling beyond the speed limit. Could he do something to highlight the deplorable state of Irish roads and the effect it has on driving quality and car quality? You have to swerve to avoid pot holes and such like or otherwise hit them head on and damage your car - particularly if the car is old or not state of the art. I drive in Dublin city and north County Dublin and road quality is very sketchy. I do not have this problem in Northern Ireland. The guy who painted around the pot holes in Co Cavan made a lot of sense.

Siobhan Farrelly

I would suggest a poster campaign to start a road safety campaign. 12 campaigns in the year as young people quickly get bored of the same information being given to them. Posters to be placed on the entrance doors of pubs. A ban on all driving by under-23s between 10pm and 8am on weekends.

Teresa Harrison

It's time for the Government to stop the talk and make the changes required to correctly train and license new drivers. The only measures that they appear capable of introducing are end-of-line revenue measures. If they introduced best practice front-end measures a lot of the carnage on the roads may never happen. You cannot continue to allow people to get into a car without training and expect to reduce accidents and deaths. It beggars belief that the Government are shocked by the carnage. They have the tools at their disposal to do something about it; the question is, do they have the wherewithal?

John Keane

I just want to let you know that it is actually illegal to use mobile phones while driving in Hong Kong. The policemen in Hong Kong would warn the drivers if they don't have a hand-free device in a car. Generally speaking, the Irish people don't have the concept of using hand-free mobile phone. It is scary to see drivers holding the mobile phone with the left hand, and controlling the car with the right hand. Have you guys ever heard of hand-free device of mobile phones?

Tony Poon

I live in Clonmel and travel 30 miles round trip every day to work. Each day I witness at least 5/6 people trying to drive and use a mobile phone at the same time. I know some of them and have asked why they do this. Their reply is always, 'I wont be caught, who is there to catch me'. The young people driving also know they won't be caught when speeding. I drive long distances every weekend. I never, ever encounter squad cars/guards on the roads. I personally feel the Government has done nothing to make our roads safer. We are listening to the same words year after year. There is no deterrent. There should be a special traffic squad in every town and if people break the law they should be put off the road. Or does the Government want to wait until they kill somebody's child?

Mary Burke, Clonmel, Tipperary

The only way to reduce road accidents is to use modern technology in each individual vehicle. We have satellite tracking and we have the technology to fit a black box similar to aircraft black boxes. These boxes could use sensors to stop vehicles from starting if the driver has drink and take finger readings off steering wheel every few seconds to prove who was driving the vehicle. This computer could control the speed as the tachograph does in a lorry. These computer read outs must be inspected every three months by a special department within Dept of Transport, in garda stations with powers to dish out fines and penalty points or disqualification. With digital technology all vehicles should have large speed displays on the back of the vehicle that everyone can monitor the speed. It would help the driver behind, particularly at night, to see the speed of the vehicle in front and adjust their speed accordingly. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further. I sent a letter to the Department of Transport and An Garda about five years ago and the answer I got was they would not look at or consider it. With attitudes like that why bother.

John Doherty

Another five young people dead on Irish roads. How much longer is the Irish Government looking at the ridiculous situation of having non-educated people driving cars? It's not only the L drivers to blame but also the parents of those who are allowed to drive a car on a provisional licence, alone, with no professional driving lesson under their belt and therefore a great danger to themselves and others. In Germany I had to pay almost 1,000 Irish pounds back in 1987 to get a full licence. I had to be 18 years of age and I had to not only do a theory test but also a set number of driving lessons in town, in the dark, on the motorway and also on country roads. Why can the Irish Government not put down such simple rules? I am quiet sure that an implementation like that would drastically reduce the totally unnecessary road deaths on Irish roads as they happen now almost every single day.

Andrea Collins, Raheen, Limerick

Could I please raise the following points in relation to road safety?

1. Driving without insurance and/or under the influence of drink or drugs should have a mandatory six-month jail sentence for first offence, increasing drastically on subsequent offence(s).

2. On being stopped for speeding all drivers should be loaded with a fine equivalent to 0.1% of their yearly salary for each 10 KPH above the speed limit they are travelling, with the addition of fines and the impounding of the vehicle for any second or subsequent offence.

3. Cars with a cubic capacity above 1200cc should be off limits to provisional licence holders and strict compliance to an 80 KPH maximum speed limit should be enforced.
4. It should be a consideration for insurance purposes that regulators limiting speed to 120 KPH should be fitted to all road vehicles, with a loading of 50% extra for non compliance.

5. Companies and individuals offering 'Supercharging' facilities for private cars should be outlawed.

6. Car kits which encourage drivers to outstrip the design capacity of the car should be outlawed.

7. Sound systems for private car use should be limited to a certain decibel level.

8. The law requiring provisional licence holders to be accompanied by a qualified driver should be rigidly enforced, with penalty points applied for non-compliance.

9. Penalty points should be doubled for provisional licence holders, with regard for offences linked to drink driving and/or speeding.

10. Convictions for dangerous driving and/or vehicular manslaughter should carry a mandatory sentence of at least 1 year for dangerous driving and 10 years for dangerous driving causing the death of another driver, passenger or pedestrian. Any death on our roads should be treated as manslaughter and surviving drivers responsible for death on our roads should be charged as a matter of course. Only a jury should be capable of rescinding these charges, finding the driver guilty or not guilty.

In the recent past we have tried practically every combination of penalty to try and eliminate the two curses of drink driving and speeding, both of which are still prevalent in our society. Only the criminalising of these acts can serve to eliminate them from society and the gardai must be given the powers to eliminate the problems. Only mandatory jail sentences and the confiscation of transport can work as a practical deterrent as all other penalties become watered down and ineffectual due to the powerful lobbies which fight to justify the decriminalising of these offences. Car owners, be they commercial or private, do not want to see their transport taken away, nor will fines linked to income prove popular, nor will mandatory jail sentences prove popular, but if it is the only way to stop the carnage, then we have no option but to take drastic action to prevent what is totally preventable carnage. The real choice is: do we want to stop the carnage, or just pontificate about it and hope it goes away? Take the option of contesting penalties away from the courts - give them one option only - guilty or not guilty - the rest should be predetermined and set in stone - severe fines linked to income, confiscation of offending vehicles and mandatory jail sentences as a last resort. Then everybody suffers equally, as do all the families of the victims, whatever their creed, social standing, or financial background. We are all made of blood and bone, we should all suffer equally.

Lar Dooley

Education is one of the keys to success, not only TV ads, and education in schools. I believe that Ireland should take example from other countries on the continent, such as Germany or France, where the drivers have to undertake a minimum of 21 hours of lessons with a professional instructor. That system has proven successful in the last years, especially with the new 3 years "Young Driver" period where young drivers only have 6 points on their licence. With this kind of education, drivers would learn to stick to their lane in the roundabouts, not to overtake in a bend or over a hill, that there is a difference between the stop sign and the yield, that you need to turn on your lights when it rains, that you only turn on your fog/long distance lights in case of fog, that you need to turn on your hazard lights when you are the last car in the queue (in case of congestion), etc. If you think about it, the driving test is there to test your ability to drive and be safe on the road. Ireland is the only country in the world where drivers can go with their own car to the driving test, fail the test and go back on the road on provisional until the next test.

To tackle the provisional licence problem, 2 things could be worth trying:

- One is to differentiate the colour of the L plate between a 1st Provisional and the 2nd Provisional (one drawback is that most of the offenders don't even have the L plates on their car...)

-The other would be to have a unified code of colours among the insurances in Ireland, where the insurance stickers would be of a different colour depending on your licence (ie. like Red for 1st provisional, Orange for 2nd provisional and Green for full licence).

Finally, there is a real need for increasing the garda resources so the laws that were put in place by the Government could actually be enforced. I am still amazed by the amount of people driving to the pub, having a couple of pints with their dinner and driving home "safely", not seeing anything wrong with driving after "only" 3 or 4 pints.

Greg H.

I follow that discussion on the road safety in Ireland for a number of years by now. And I don't see any hope for it as long as there won't be a proper driving education system and some people with common sense setting up the rules. I made my exams to obtain a driving licence 12 years ago in Germany. On a high standard; a theoretical test can not be passed after one night of studying one little book. And when I compare the questions in the theoretical test with the driving test here, I just can say, it is a joke here. According to my uncle, who is a professional driving teacher in Germany, these questions here in Ireland are state of 1950's. Absolutely out of date and unrealistic. Beside this, I needed to obtain a minimum number of practical driving lessons (maybe 18 hours, including night driving, motorway driving) with a professional instructor before I was allowed to do a practical test. It was up to my driving teacher to say when I would be ready to try the test. Before passing the theoretical and practical test, there is just no chance to get onto a road. It is much better and safer in a non-provisional licence environment. But the reasons why this can not be reached in Ireland can never be solved. Another comment I have to make: Why are provisional licence holders allowed to drive on all bad maintained and dangerous country roads, but at the same time they are not allowed to drive on those few kilometres of motorways which are the safest roads in the country? If a provisional driver can drive 100 on bad roads, then he/she can also drive 120 on a much wider, double lane road, separated form the facing traffic. There are more rules like this which are just completely away from any human's common sense. This bad situation in Ireland can be solved. It is indeed very easy to do. Just look at other countries in Europe and what they are doing and what are the results of their actions. It makes no sense trying to invent the wheel again and again.

Axel Rau

I will be the first to admit that I 'm not the best driver in the world. But having said that, I think I have a good attitude to driving and safety. I see it as people's attitude borne out of their learning experience, as this is where it all begins and the attitude is developed. To get a couple of lessons off someone and then establish between you that you are going to be safe to drive until you need to learn properly for your test , which may be years away, does not teach anyone a good attitude to safety. Safety is basically all about attitude: you can be the best driver in the world and have the wrong attitude.

John

I recently visited Mumbai in India. A clever safety initiative has been put in place in the Indian city. Plastic pillars that are flexible at the base (acts like a spring) are spaced along a road similar to cats' eyes. The purpose of these pillars is to stop motorists from changing lanes or overtaking where it is dangerous or not permitted. The widespread use of such pillars in Ireland could significantly reduce the incidents of motorists overtaking where they should not, for example on blind corners etc. This simple plastic pillar design placed at strategic locations could really save lives on Irish roads. Worthy of a few pilot projects or installing at high accident locations?

D Grundy, Skerries, Co Dublin

**The Road Safety Authority replied to the above comment. The RSA said "these devices are used to some extent in urban areas, like Stephen's Green in Dublin. In rural areas with high speed traffic NRA have piloted two 2plus1 roads with a safety barrier dividing the traffic flows. Both schemes are providing successful."

When I was last in Ireland I vowed I would never drive there again. I live in New York and drove there for forty years and never had a accident. The young people in Ireland know only one thing about driving: speed and more speed. Maybe if the age limit was upped it would help. The Government must be held to account and punish and suspend drivers who are involved in speed accidents and indeed some jail time would be in order.

Patrick Scannell. New York

From what I've read it appears to be the case that provisional licence holders can drive in Ireland on their own, if it is a second licence. This defies belief if it's true and wondered if anyone could confirm it. I live in Scotland, but am regularly driving in Ireland visiting family in Youghal. If this is the case, surely there must be political pressure to end the situation?

Dr Bruce Burton, Dundee, Scotland

I live in Killarney in Kerry [which] has a huge amount of narrow roads with bends. I find the roads have a huge amount of potholes, which I find you have to try and avoid while driving. I find the council don't seem to go around and look out for these to be filled. It is only if you ring [to] tell them about an area that they will look at it, but most people seem to leave it to everyone else to ring which means it never gets done. What is the law on the trimming of hedges along country roads? I find the overgrown edges of the roads a huge problem in Kerry. They are never cut back where I live and find it makes visibility on bends twice as bad because you cannot see around the bends as well as you could if they were properly maintained. If it is the council's job they are not doing it, and if it's the land owners' responsibility there should be fines for not trimming their boundaries on the road. Some of them are a disgrace and I could tell you numerous places where accidents are waiting to happen because of the neglect. There are numerous new small housing estates on the outskirts of Killarney where now the volume of traffic has multiplied yet the approach roads have not changed and as a result have become dangerous. I think a few changes like these could make a huge difference. I don't know how you can change the mentality of some drivers who feel they need to overtake at every opportunity and alot of the time use very bad judgement. Overtaking has become a bad problem on the roads. It's like some drivers feel they have to do this. How often do we find people overtaking and speeding and driving dangerously only to find them in front of us again at the next town! Taking all those chances to save no time at all. I find lorry drivers the worst. They drive far too close behind cars and they have a very intimidating arrogant way of driving. They drive on the secondary roads which alot of the time they are too large for. They drive too fast and they drive toward you in a "get out of my way manner" while partly encroaching on the opposite side of the road. I am never surprised when I hear lorries were involved in so many crashes as they are allowed to drive on the roads so arrogantly and I never see police on the roads so they get away with this.

I think there is too much expected of some lorry drivers with their tight schedules and this may contribute to this mentality. I know alot of the fatal crashes particularly at night involve young drivers, but I myself find that there is a terrible arrogant bullying way of driving on the Irish roads and alot of these people I see are not young but of all ages. I always keep within the speed limit (I'm not a dangerous slow driver either) but on numerous occasions I find myself being bullied by a car behind driving incredibly close trying to force me to up my speed. I don't and I can see by their faces I'm annoying them!! And again these are not young people they are ignorant people with a very bad attitude and they should be taught the rules of the road!

The other point i would like to make is about the temporary road surfaces. There is a section of road on the Tralee/Killarney road close to Tralee which has had a temporary surface on it for at least a couple of months. I drove on it a few weeks ago in bad weather. Temporary surface, no road markings, bends, and heavy fast traffic. Terrifying!! And not a workman in sight! Why does it take the council so long to do everything? They should not have to be told by the public about something, they should use their own initiative. They can't all be robots! They drive these roads too. If they see a problem they should get it fixed, not wait for it to come on their job sheet before they tackle it. They should have "road scouts" who check out the road (including local back roads) for potholes, bad visibility due to overgrown hedging etc. If these people exist already they should start doing their jobs.

The final observation I would like to make is the cost of driving lessons. I don't think they are too expensive at E30 an hour. The only thing I feel is that if I was in 18-24 age group I would find this expensive, especially considering 20 lessons would be needed at least. I feel this could contribute to bad driving habits through learning from non-professionals. I feel more young people would take proper driving lessons if there was some kind of a grant or subsidy scheme as an incentive to learn to drive correctly. I think all provisional drivers who have applied for a driving test should have to have passed a "driving lessons certificate" issued by driving instructors with proof they did at least 10 lessons with professional driving instructors before they can do their driving test. Or maybe when a person does the theory test before applying for provisional licence that they get a temporary licence with restrictions and when they do the professional lessons and get the "driving lessons cert" they can then get their provisional licence.

Pauline Christie, Killarney, Co. Kerry

Why not put speed limiters on cars? All engines have them anyway, they just need slight modification. If a speed limit on a road is 70mph, why should people have the capability to go twice the speed limit of 140mph? Is pressure from the car industry to maintain choice and sales and the Government's greed for VRT and VAT worth more than the cost of human life? Also, why not make it law to limit young drivers or L drivers to cars of 1.1 litres and less? If a normal person off the street is thinking this way surely Government and their advisors have thought of this a long time ago and dismissed it on the grounds of lost revenue. We should do what's right and not be doing a cost benefit on road deaths versus lost revenue.

Niall Halvey

Road safety experts are now telling us that the four main reasons for carnage on our roads are, not necessarily in this order, speed, drink-driving, non-wearing of seat-belts and fatigue. They are all of utterly crucial importance, but I wonder why there is only one skill that is consistently emphasised over and over again, namely making a correct choice of speed for a given context. Staying sober, getting sufficient rest and belting up are critically vital preparatory behaviours that cannot be emphasised enough, but many people are capable of at least trying to grasp the need for another skill other than the control of speed. Earlier this year the powers-that-be seemed to be starting to address the use of space. Almost all the new penalty point offences have at their core a concern for space, not surprisingly since an absence of appropriate space creates an extreme risk of a crash. The four teaching adverts of the Road Safety Authority earlier this year also had an implicit theme of space, and even went so far as to label those who break the two-second rule (just one of many spatial errors) as fools. One was also urged to expect the unexpected. One cannot prepare for the unexpected by the use of appropriate speed alone; it also requires a regard for space. Speed and space choice are bound together by an experienced expectation of the unexpected. Speed, Space and Surprise are the three essential S's of car control. A good driver seeks to minimise the first and maximise the second in order to eliminate the third. Almost everywhere on Irish roads, there is a misuse of speed and space. It seems to me to make little sense to emphasise only the first. Those who are concerned about road safety should emphasise speed even more and add to that an equal concern for the use of space.

One of the situations where spatial errors are made time and time again is in reckless, couldn't-care-less overtaking. The [driver overtaken] is first often tailgated for miles, then pushed to the left during the overtaking manoeuvre and finally cut in front of, as the overtaker seeks to avoid an oncoming vehicle or a bend or brow that may conceal such. Given that the only skill that is consistently hammered home again and again is speed, it logically follows there are numerous problems that are not addressed with insistent passion. One of these is reckless overtaking, that being primarily a space issue, not a speed one. Additionally, one cannot successfully address the problem of hot-headed, ill-judged movements on to and off a major road in relation to a side road, if one is concerned by speed alone. It's necessary to increase the emphasis on ill-chosen speed (it simply cannot be sufficiently emphasised enough), and to add to that a concern for space. A concern for space automatically enhances a concern for speed reduction. These concerns feed off each other and create a virtuous circle. Misuse of speed and space is often due to rushed driving. In the disciplines of rail, air and sea transport, the issue of space is paramount. In rail it is primarily achieved by engineering; in the other two primarily by driver education and enforcement. It is only in road transport that space is not effectively deployed as a means of enhancing safety.

I would ask people who have a publicity role to play in road safety to have regard to the values contained in the new penalty point offences and in the television road safety teaching adverts earlier this year and to encapsulate those in appropriate sound-bites, such as:

* Give yourself/others space for safe driving.

* Safe speeds and safe distances.

* neither too fast nor too close.

* Speed, Space and Surprise - minimise the first, maximise the second and eliminate the third.

* You must expect the unexpected on our roads, so keep your speed down and give yourself space.

* rush = too much speed + too little space.

Ian Doweny, Waterford