Monday, January 02, 2006
Govt failing on Road Safety - Fine Gael
Some of you may recall a post I made prior to Christmas about road safety in Ireland and how too many people are dying as a result of road accidents.
I'm pleased therefore to see Fine Gael taking the Government to task over this issue.
Fine Gael has claimed the Government is not fulfilling promises it made in its Road Safety Strategy.
A total of 398 people were killed in road accidents in 2005, 24 more than in 2004.
While the number of arrests for drink-driving increased over the Christmas period, the overall number of arrests was down on the year before.
Fine Gael's transport spokesperson Olivia Mitchell said that people "know there's a very small chance of being caught" when speeding or drink driving and because of that they "don't take the necessary precautions".
I agree with Olivia Mitchell's assessment. As I've said before, if the Government were serious about tackling this problem then they would have the Gardaí wait outside parking lots with breathlyzers to issue to the "I can have one more I suppose" contingent who exacerbate this problem. Of course, this does not happen.
Government Ministers really need to take their heads out of their arses on this issue.
How many people have to die in road accidents in 2006 in order for this Government to wake up and realise we have a huge problem on our hands?
I'm pleased therefore to see Fine Gael taking the Government to task over this issue.
Fine Gael has claimed the Government is not fulfilling promises it made in its Road Safety Strategy.
A total of 398 people were killed in road accidents in 2005, 24 more than in 2004.
While the number of arrests for drink-driving increased over the Christmas period, the overall number of arrests was down on the year before.
Fine Gael's transport spokesperson Olivia Mitchell said that people "know there's a very small chance of being caught" when speeding or drink driving and because of that they "don't take the necessary precautions".
I agree with Olivia Mitchell's assessment. As I've said before, if the Government were serious about tackling this problem then they would have the Gardaí wait outside parking lots with breathlyzers to issue to the "I can have one more I suppose" contingent who exacerbate this problem. Of course, this does not happen.
Government Ministers really need to take their heads out of their arses on this issue.
How many people have to die in road accidents in 2006 in order for this Government to wake up and realise we have a huge problem on our hands?
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