An initiative with the potential to reduce the rate of deaths and injuries on the roads is to be launched in Waterford next week.
The Waterford Group of Advanced Motorists is the first group in the Republic to be affiliated to the Institute of Advanced Motorists in London.
The establishment of a group here is the realisation of a long-held ambition for Mr Paddy Finn, a Bus Eireann training inspector who worked as a driving instructor in London.
As a result of his efforts, 61 people in the Waterford area, the majority of whom are Bus Eireann drivers, have passed the institute's advanced driving test. A further 30, including a number of the company's drivers and their wives, are to take the test next month.
Mr Finn says the formal establishment of an advanced driving group in Waterford should lead to the setting up of similar groups throughout the State. There are six such groups in Northern Ireland.
The institute is a non-profit organisation and was set up in 1956 by the Metropolitan Police in London, in conjunction with professional racing drivers, with the aim of reducing the number of road accidents involving police. It succeeded in bringing down the number of such accidents from one for every 8,000 miles driven to one for every 80,000 miles.
There is nothing "weird or wonderful" about the technique taught to advanced drivers, Mr Finn says. "It's just about doing the simple things right all the time."
The test here is given by examiners from the Garda training college in Templemore, and before taking it drivers attend two classroom sessions and take one driving lesson.
All of that is free, although further tuition, if considered necessary, must be paid for. The test itself, Mr Finn says, is a more relaxed affair than the standard driving test. "It isn't conducted in silence. The examiners and the driver are allowed to speak."
Britain, he says, has approximately 750,000 advanced drivers and the success of the institute is regarded as one of the factors in the neighbouring island's better safety record. "In Ireland, for every one million people, 121 are killed on the roads each year. In Britain it's 64," he said.
The Waterford group will be launched at the Granville Hotel next Monday at 8 p.m. Further information can be obtained from Mr Finn at 0864012369.