Staying safe on roads is an achievable goal for all of us

Garda Crime Watch with Sergeant Michael Walsh

THIS year’s Christmas and New Year road safety appeal was recently launched by An Garda Síochána and yet again it focuses on the road user behaviours that lead to the devastating loss of life and serious injuries.

Galway has seen more than its fair share of road deaths this year, and on Sunday November 21 last, we marked World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

Figures provided by the Road Safety Authority highlighted that 24,663 people have died on Irish roads since we began recording fatalities in 1959. Since 1977, when injury records began, 84,977 people have been seriously injured.

Traditionally the terms ‘crash’ or ‘accident’ were used to describe an incident that we today call a ‘collision’.

Those initial terms describe an unexpected happening not due to any fault or misconduct: however, we now know that someone is responsible in the vast majority of road incidents, hence the term ‘collisions’.

There is a big focus on road safety over the Christmas period as we’ve had 83 fatalities and 709 serious injuries during that period over the last five years.

In many cases drunk and drug driving have been a factor, so needless to say that will be a major focus for the Garda Roads Policing Unit over the coming weeks.

Alcohol is a sedative, and any alcohol impairs driving and increases the risk of a collision. When you have a drink the alcohol hits your brain within minutes.

It starts to both slow down and close down your brain’s activity, resulting on you missing out on the dangers on the road.

Unfortunately drink driving is still a problem on Irish roads, with approximately 4,500 drivers arrested on suspicion of drunk driving this year to date. The message is quite simple  – “don’t drink and drive.”

Just as worryingly we have seen an increase in drug driving in recent years with the numbers arrested reaching almost 3,500 so far this year.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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