Driving debate takes wrong turn
Tuesday March 25 2008
I was not trying to demonise older drivers in my initial letter. Rather I was honestly relaying an experience and simply making the point that younger drivers seem to have been demonised to the point where the behaviour of everyone else is forgotten.
Middle-aged men control almost everything in this country.
It seems clear to me that the gardai and our politicians and our road safety people have a tendency to act somewhat accordingly -- because most of them are middle-aged men too.
I once had a slight 'ding'. It was both our faults -- me and a man of 60 or so in a jeep.
He happened to be stone deaf and did not hear me beep at the last minute, let alone see me!
The gardai happened upon the scene, and I got bawled out of it by the young trainee who was told to deal with it in a 'let's see how you handle this' sort of way by his portly middle- aged colleague.
After the young guy had given me a dressing down I caught the middle-aged garda literally whispering in the ear of the jeep driver, "You should have looked!" (not that he heard him ).
The fact is that the authorities do discriminate against younger drivers.
I truly fear every long journey. Most of the fear relates to vans swinging into my lane without warning at the last minute, drunks of all ages, uninsured drivers, aggressive tailgating and people pulling out of side -- roads at the last minute.
We could deport all the foreigners and ban all modified cars, but I'd wager that road deaths would not go down.
The problem is that most people can not admit their own weaknesses and failings, and everyone who drives a car (yes, I very much include myself) has them in some measure -- regardless of age.
That's human.
The smallest and most obvious minority get it in the neck all the time, and I thought that relaying a mostly contradictory (true) story might be interesting for a much needed change.
ANTHONY HALPIN
HERBERT ROAD, BRAY, CO WICKLOW
