picture from http://www.oss237.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/RSA-3.jpgTwo hundred and seventy six people died on the country's roads in the year just ended. I use the word 'died' rather than 'were killed' because in reality people aren't killed by roads, but instead their actions on the roads results in death. Over the last few years the media appear to have changed the way road deaths are reported, and have reduced the use of phrases such as 'another life claimed on our roads'.
This change in phraseology is important in changing the way we think about road deaths. Saying the victim was killed by hitting the tree, lamppost or other object implies the road somehow killed the victim, but the tree did not suddenly move into the middle of the road. So how can we say the road killed the person? Similarly is it correct to call the deceased a 'victim', because that too implies a person died at the hands of someone or something (themselves often the cause). The change implies a new level of taking responsibility for our own lives, whether that is as driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist. Perhaps the message is finally getting through, road deaths are declining, for exactly what reason is yet to be deciphered, but any sort of progress is to be welcomed.
Look at the picture above.... how does it happen? 276 people died by the roadside or in hospitals around the country after being pulled from wrecks similar to that in the image. Deaths on our roads are falling and are down on last year, but, nonetheless 276 families are facing into 2009 without a loved one. Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey attributed the reduction in road deaths to 'road-users right around the country have stepped up to the challenge and... changing their driving behaviours every day'. While I believe there's a lot of merit in that assessment, one glaringly obvious point is being skipped over by politicians who are quick to sympathise (as they should) but slow to act to change the situation...
While it would seem the majority of drivers, young and old, are taking more care on the road by perhaps driving at more appropriate speeds and not drink driving, a small segment of our society is destroying itself on an increasingly regular basis. That segment is young boy racers. Over the Christmas period several incidents have occurred where young males have been involved in devastating and tragic 'accidents'. The most notable was on New Years Eve when five youngsters under eighteen travelling in a car, crashed into a tree in Nenagh, killing three and seriously injuring the remaining two. How can we condone seventeen year olds being given car keys to drive four (younger) passengers anywhere? This incident occurred relatively early also, at 7.30pm. In the preceding days several other families lost their sons, another incident occurring in Leitrim on the 23rd, when a seventeen year old male drove into a parked lorry. A female passenger was not seriously injured.
Rarely are other vehicles or mitigating circumstances involved. And it's not a problem that reaches into young female drivers. But for young female passengers it's a different story. Statistics released in July showed that more than two-thirds of females who died in car crashes from 1997-2006 were passengers in cars driven by men.
Whilst I'm not trying to say that deaths of young males should be in any way regarded as less tragic than other deaths on our roads, we are facing into a quite serious situation whereby young males are routinely killing themselves, in vehicles, at night on rural roads. Those dying are getting younger; while it used to be deaths of young males in their twenties we heard about, it's now 17 and 18 year olds. Worse still, there have been several incidents where the driver killed was not even old enough to be on the road. The Irish Independent yesterday reported that the driver in the Nenagh crash, who survived, was only sixteen years old. Therefore it is illegal for him to on the road at all. They reported that Gardai said the car 'was not stolen...and are investigating the possibility that it may have been bought for a few hundred euro'.
Where do parents and communities stand in all of this? While local communities rally around the families of those deceased, no-one seems prepared to tackle this growing problem whatsoever. Rural communities appear to see it as a fact of life, never acknowledging that these types of accidents rarely happen in urban areas. Driving at high speed, without a license or insurance, without experience, down dark winding roads may seem exotic- but it kills. Whilst speed and alcohol checkpoints occur regularly in urban areas, rarely are they seen in rural areas. Anecdotally, I've heard that in rural areas neighbours tip each other off as to the location of Garda checkpoints so a different route can be taken. How does that kind of attitude help anyone? It just leads to more deaths by people who should be off the road for dangerous driving. 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour' does not include helping the evasion of drink driving checks. People have to accept they are partially responsible if that neighbour ploughs into a tree six months later.
I'm not sure there is a solution to this problem, but parents of young males should seriously think about how giving their seventeen year old sons car keys could literally bring their world crashing down one morning at 3am. Failing that, perhaps the Gardai need to consider an all out curfew for male drivers from evening to morning. Of course there are lots of very capable young male drivers out there, but do we just let this pattern continue on and place it in the 'inevitable' box in the corner?
Comments and thoughts welcomed....
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