Road Deaths

The Irish editor of the Sunday Times (or should that be the editor of the Irish Sunday Times?), Frank Fitzgibbon has a comment piece today in which he emphasises the need for individuals to take responsibility for their behaviour on the roads.

The Irish public has endless enthusiasm when it comes to blaming the government for everything that goes wrong in the country, but trying to uncouple personal responsibility from the deadly toll on our roads is just boneheaded.

If I leave my front door open and take off on a fortnight’s holiday, I will return to find the house cleaned out and a thank-you note from the burglar. My open-door policy may even have attracted the attention of squatters. As my insurance company will be quick to point out, the situation is of my own making. Neither will

I get very far by arguing that my taxes fund the gardai and therefore I am entitled to have my property protected.

How does that differ from getting tanked up with booze, getting into a car, driving too fast and taking dangerous risks that lead to bad things happening? Or forget about getting boozed up. If I knowingly break the speed limit and drive recklessly, there is an increased danger of an accident — possibly a fatal one. So when the taoiseach offers the advice that people should “slow down” and “take it easy”, he is talking nothing other than plain, unvarnished common sense.

In all of which he is quite right. But it still does not excuse Government inaction. Drivers can certainly do more, but so can Ministers.