Treacy Hogan: Whingers and naysayers- step up to the L-plate
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THE whingers complaining on the airwaves yesterday about the new rules for learner and novice drivers completely missed the point.
It is not about imposing needless restrictions and penalties on people.
It is about saving lives, the lives of those 17-24-year-olds killed with their equally young friends in ever-increasing numbers in body-crunching single-car pile-ups in the early hours of the morning.
There is no way to make this pretty. I've talked to emergency personnel about what it's like to come across the immediate aftermath of such an event.
If you're lucky there is some screaming, possibly even a quiet moan indicating life. There is usually a shoe lying in the middle of the road, some distance from the crash site.
More often than not it is utter stillness, the lights of the emergency vehicle shining on twisted metal and body parts. It is something that no one should have to witness, as it never goes away.
Yet this is the reality for increasing numbers of young drivers, mainly males, who believe they are indestructible, invincible and that the fatal pile-up always happens to someone else.
The reality, backed up by authoritative research here and abroad, is that young male learner permit drivers are dramatically over-represented in fatal and serious car crashes.
Research shows that for the first few months of driving, learners run the greatest risk of having fatal crashes. And this is the most important point of intervention.
The crash rate is highest during the teenage years, and declines each year after this. Inexperience increasingly equates with early death on Irish roads.
This year many more sleepy-eyed parents answered the doorbell to uniformed gardai breaking the news that they had lost a loved one.
Ireland is the only country where Junior (17) can get his parents to put him on the family car insurance policy as a named driver. He then gets big brother to give him a few lessons.
After that he drives around with his mates at high speed in the middle of the night, enjoying the new-found freedom afforded by the 'set of wheels'.
The next step is slam into a pole or wall or ditch, killing himself and his mates. Some of the coffins have to be kept closed, such is the extent of the high-speed carnage.
So who's to blame? His parents for not making sure he gets proper lessons and does not drive unaccompanied? The gardai for not stopping him? The Government and Road Safety Authority (RSA) for not bringing Ireland into line with the rest of Europe with a proper graduated driving test and instruction system, backed up by special penalty points and low drink-drive limits for learners?
All of the above. So when the RSA actually manages to put together a package on a par with best international practice and gets it approved by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, what happens?
The whingers and naysayers get on to Joe Duffy and Co and start complaining about the poor young lads and how they are going to be hampered in their daily endeavours.
Absolute rubbish. Typical knee-jerk reaction based on a fear of any change.
Here's the bottom line. When proper graduated driving training and testing was introduced in other countries there was a fall in road deaths among young male drivers.
It is not a panacea to all of the unacceptable carnage on Irish roads, but it will save some more lives.
So stop whinging and get involved with your children as they learn to drive.
Step up to the L-plate and supervise your young adults behind the wheel. It could make the difference between life and (their) death.
thogan@independent.ie
- Treacy Hogan
Irish Independent
