State on final provisional in the road safety crisis
The Government is aiming to halt the carnage on our roads with its new strategy, which sets a target of reducing the number of fatalities by 400 before the end of 2012
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The Government's L-plate ride is over, we hope. They've been on a provisional licence for road safety for the past ten years, and failed.
So much of what was promised has never been implemented. They held a provisional licence for too long and failed the test. Now the Government is on its second and final provisional licence.
Either the grand plan to save 400 lives on our roads between now and 2012 works, or we will once again be the laughing stock of Europe when it comes to road safety. One in five drivers are either in for a rude awakening next Tuesday, or there will be red faces in government circles.
The prospect of not being able to drive unaccompanied will put the proverbial fear of God into the estimated 420,000 drivers on provisional licences.
Most of them have been driving alone to and from work, shopping, socialising and generally going about their daily business.
Prosecutions
Until now gardai generally turned a blind eye to the requirement. The number of prosecutions for not being accompanied on either your first, third or subsequent provisional licences is so small it doesn't even register in the top 2,000 offences in the courts system. That's how seriously the requirement has been taken up to now.
Yesterday, Assistant Garda Commissioner, Eddie Rock, vowed that his traffic officers will enforce the new laws, which take effect from next Tuesday.
The choice facing hundreds of thousands of provisional drivers is to comply and find a qualified driver of at least two years experience to accompany them, thus remaining on the road, or to engage in a "business as usual" scenario, hoping gardai won't bother to enforce the rule.
Experience tells us that grossly under-resourced gardai have not got the wherewithall to mount special learner permit checkpoints. That simply will not happen.
So, the young man who lives in Ballina, but works in Castlebar, will continue driving to and from his workplace unaccompanied.
The spectre of him not being insured in the event of a crash also raises its head. Noel Brett, the head of the Road Safety Authority, insisted last night that those who flout the law and drive unaccompanied will be not be insured if they have a crash. Insurance companies will obviously pay out for any injuries or damage to the third party, if there is one. But some companies may try to recover the costs of crash damage to the vehicle owned by the affected learner driver.
The strategy unveiled yesterday is undoubtedly a great plan on paper, as the Automobile Association described it.
There are no less than 126 specific proposals which are designed to save 400 lives between now and 2012.
The reduction in the drink driving alcohol limit, the private speed camera network filming for 6,000 hours every month and an examination of the growing drug driving scourge are all tried and tested initiatives in other countries.
The problem with strategies is that they often end up on the bottom shelf, where they sit for years gathering dust while civil servants take part in working groups. The worthy proposals rarely happen.
After all, this is the third road safety strategy presided over by the Taoiseach. The previous two achieved very little.
It is interesting to note that, for the first time, the proposals all have a deadline for implementation, and an official is publicly named in the strategy as being the person responsible for a specific measure.
Every year there will be an examination of progress and those in charge will be held accountable for any lack of progress. This is something the opposition will be keeping a close watch on.
A strategy is not worth a damn unless its proposals are implemented. If they delayed, longfingered or, just as importantly, diluted, we will want to know why. At the end of the day people want to know if the plan will make our roads safer.
What about the menace of boy-racers terrorising communities all over the country? Those unfinished roadworks with one small warning sign which has fallen into the ditch? What about those dreadful backroads where there isn't room for two donkey and carts, never mind two cars hurtling along at a legal speed limit of 80kmh? What about the new breed of drivers who are high on cocaine and cannabis? How do you legislate for the one in five drivers that simply fall asleep at the wheel, career off the road and plough into a wall, never to awaken
How do you stop a 17-year-old in a Honda Civic driving at 100kph on a narrow country road? The radio is at full volume and the mates are having great craic in the back with their curry chips. It is 2am and they are all minutes away from death, another addition to the toll, a few paragraphs in the national press and a mention on the radio.
These are some of the "real world" problems that are rarely dealt with in strategies, this one being no exception.
Yes, the proposals are welcome but the real question is: Will the gardai provide the high visible enforcement to make the strategy work?
On the basis of the random breath testing campaign, the signs are good.
However, the gardai clearly need far more resources and manpower to mount a real traffic police on a par with the best in Europe.
