CARNAGE CONTINUES THROUGHOUT 2005

Today’s post looks at the Fatal Accident figures for Ireland for 2005 and proffers some hard hitting facts as to why we are failing to deal with the continuing carnage. Can our accident rate be reduced? Can we accept responsibility ourselves for these horrendous statistics? Can we do anything about it? Can we put in place some basic infrastructure that will eventually see some results?

The answer to all these questions is a resounding YES. While the poor record of successive Ministers of Transport in dealing with our Road Safety problems needs to be looked at, each and every Driver can play a part in improving the figures that have just been released.

The year just gone has seen a Death Toll of 399 on the roads, which is the worst figure in Five Years. While it may seem that we are rapidly going backwards in our attempts to reduce fatalities, in fact, when you consider the huge increase in vehicles on the roads in the last five years our performance perhaps is not so bad. In addition to fatal accidents the rise in so-called every day accidents could easily be reduced by the implementation of properly trained learner Drivers, through Regulated Driving Schools. Almost every day on the road we come across accidents involving learner Drivers, sometimes several Learners in the same accident.

Most if not all deaths on the Roads could be prevented if the standard of just basic Driving Skills were improved across the board from the learner Driver of age 17 to the Mature Driver in his or her 60’s.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT ?
1. Implement the long overdue Driving School Legislation which is now fours years overdue from the date it was supposed to be enacted.

2. Implement the Full package of Penalty Points, now three years on and still only four out of sixty six offences in action.

3. Remove the anomaly, unique in Europe, of Learner Drivers driving unaccompanied.

4. Implement a minimum mandatory number of Driving Lessons from an Accredited Driving School before being allowed to sit a Driving Test. This has been talked about and talked about….you get the picture! This strategy would of course focus Learner Drivers on the necessity for taking tuition from a Professional and reduce the long waiting lists for a Driving Test.

5. Mandatory re training of all drivers who clock up a certain number of Penalty points within a short time.

6. Additional Mandatory Training for commercial vehicle Drivers who are involved in an increasing number of more serious accidents. Again we see these on the roads every day and one of the main reasons for the rush here-rush there syndrome is the pressure from the Transport Manager in their respective Companies.

We will continue this theme throughout the Month since a New Year is a good time to evaluate what has passed and what improvements can be put in place in the Current Year. Also it’s worth being aware of this time of year especially, since our window of worst weather conditions is upon us for the next two months or so.


Astral Driving School Limerick.

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