The most incredible statistic, however, is that in 2004 36% of all fatal crashes involved only one vehicle, an increase of 3% on 2003. Single-vehicle crashes, involving no other road user, are most strongly associated with drink-driving and/or speeding. The shocking thing is that the penalty points system was introduced in '03 and there was an increase in road fatalitys in '04!! Speed kills, saying no to drinking and getting behind the wheel.. we all know the basics of the right message about staying safe on the road. But by not doing either of these, for example, are we protecting ourselves and our fellow road users on moral grounds because we know its wrong, and dont want to be responsible for seriously injuring or killing someone? Or is it a fear of being caught by a speed camera , or being asked to "blow in the bag" on the roadside.
I feel sadly , that the majority of road users, as you well know would be fall on the side of the latter.. We drive our cars like the way a badly behaved teenager acts, Crap attitude, cant be arsed to do it right, and sticks two fingers up to the world hoping never to be caught..

Here are the stats..

Year ----- Death ----- Injured

It is obvious that the novelty of the penalty points system is now wearing a bit thin on most of us. The statistics show that the issuing of points to motorists is on the increase year on year. This may be due to increase of traffic ,granted, but this statistic should not be. The whole incentive of their introduction was to save lives wasn't it? ,to make us slow down, to question our actions and take more care of ourselves, our passengers and our fellow motorists, to cut out the reckless behaviour…thus bring down the cold title of “The Death Rate” in the central statistics office. Every death is somebodys son, mother, father or daughter. In one way or another, everyone has, or will been hit with the impact of losing somebody or at least a person that we know from an accident.

Our cars are put through a rigorous NCT to make sure that our vehicles are of the highest safety standard mechanically, every little detail is tested both inside and out of the car. An Garda Shiocana do their upmost to try and curb the carnage by enforcing the point system, and enlisting drink driving blitz campaigns which are designed to deter offensive motorists from driving under the influence, where sadly, the message still simply does not get through to some.

So why are we left with this problem? These laws are in place to stem this totally unnecessary high loss of life for such a small country. Personally, and from a professional point of view, from spending most of my waking hours on the road I see somebody doing something “crazy” every single day. We can all relate to that statement. Its too easy to blame the bad state of some of our roads, or the "black spots" for the reckless destruction of lives, and of those who are left behind. It is within the power of every road user to change their behaviour thus bring down the accident rate and be safer. It is not up to The department of transport, they don’t drive our cars, we must stop shifting the blame and look toward ourselves and our driving habits. Patience is a virtue as the saying goes, and this is so true, get there late and so on…

The introduction of The Theory Test is a good and well overdue idea for new motorists. There is one destructive flaw in this system sadly. For example, the idea is to learn the warning signs and road markings and some common hazard situations, get tested on them through a pc and get 35 out of 40 correct and then you have a Provisional licence.
Straight away the system is letting down our learners by saying you don’t know all the answers but that’s good enough. Ask anybody who has just completed this test and passed it, what a corner is? and I can safely say that they will not know, or even be able to describe it. Most likely they will tell youits like a "bendy thing in the road" or whatever, A Corner is a 90-degree shift in direction where particular dangerous forces act upon the car, and this is the kind of clarity I feel our beginners should have of the road before they are allowed on it to learn. From my experience learners are at times are safer than most other drivers, but lack of experience and the dangerous actions of others puts them in a very vulnerable situation.

Overtaking can obviously be really dangerous. We all see some terrible overtaking, The slow passes that seem to go on forever, the near misses that just got back to their own side of the road in time. Absolutely nothing wrong in doing this when executed with thought, anticipation and the right technique. Tailgating is all too common and it is not only intimidating for the vehicles in front, but highly dangerous and a domino effect of problems is created from doing this. Common sense should tell you that it is simply impossible to overtake when you cannot see the dangers because you're too close to the car in front.For example.. Oncoming vehicles and possible right turns ahead with cars coming out of the junction turning left towards you!. It is a simple and efficient manouver when carried out from a safe distance back from the car you wish to pass, using this space build up acceleration before carrying out the overtake. This method gives you the upper hand in so far as you can see the road ahead clearly and gets you back to your own side in half the time. The average overtake takes 8 to 12 seconds (or more), would you drive down the wrong side of the road for this length of time? This method slashes that time thus keeping you much safer and out of harms way.

That is only one example but on this site there are various methods and motoring tips and techniques dotted throughout. We all can make our roads alot safer and it is within the bounds of everybody if we all woke up to our actions and used a litte common sense, paid more attention to each and every action that we make,and had some more patience with the more vulnerable drivers among us……

There will always be accidents,and people will forever die on our roads but education and the implementation of safe driving habits from the start is the key to changing the staggering number of lives young and old our roads claim.

Paul Mc Gettigan, dir 563.
Erne School Of Motoring.