A speeding car culture in the Inishowen area is a major factor in the high level of road deaths there, writes Kathy Sheridan in Co Donegal
After 18 months of multiple tragedies and indescribable trauma for the people of the Inishowen peninsula, the battle-lines are drawn. The Garda is not doing enough, say the people. The people will not stand up and be counted, insists the Garda.
Co Donegal is second only to the Louth-Meath area in the road death league. Twenty-six people have died on the county's roads in 2005 and Inishowen has had more than its share. Over the past 18 months, 25 people have died on the peninsula's roads, 20 of them aged under 30. This year alone, Inishowen gardaí, headquartered at Buncrana, have documented 47 collisions involving serious injury, another 46 involving minor injuries and 131 involving material damage. A look at the panel reveals a pattern: late nights, weekends, speed and youth are among the linking factors. Sometimes alcohol is in the mix, although rarely among the under-40s.
The senior garda in Buncrana, Supt Vincent O'Brien, talks knowledgably, sometimes wearily, about the car rallying "culture" endemic in the region - a spin-off from the Donegal International Car Rally, the Circuit of Ireland and the vibrant tradition just across the Border - and the huge pride the "boy racers" take in their cars.
This is an area with the highest percentage of early school-leavers in the country, where the boys traditionally head for the building industry at 15 or 16. "They go to Dublin, work there from Monday to Friday, and earn vast sums of up to €1,500 a week, so they can afford their fast cars", says Supt O'Brien.
Rear-wheel drives such as the BMW 320S, Subaru Impreza and Toyota Corolla twin cams, are particularly coveted for "doughnuts" stunts, ie burning a circle in rubber with the rear wheels. For enhanced performance, modifications such as the welding of the split differential in the rear wheels of old Sierra Saphires, are common.
The weekend meets advertised through websites such as jon44W.com are on public roads. Last year, Buncrana gardaí were called out 13 times over one weekend to deal with road racing. In one case, up to 50 cars were racing on the N13. Two of them crashed while speeding away from patrol cars.
Last weekend in Letterkenny, only hours after the loss of five young lives in a two-car collision near Muff, up to 500 boy racers were in the Aldi car park in Letterkenny showing off their cars and stunts.
As well as primping, modifying and showing off cars, the practice of four or five young fellows clubbing together to buy "end-of-life" cars for as little as €30 and driving them till the engine goes or they crash is also common.
Late-night quad racing on public roads is another Co Donegal phenomenon. These quads, according to Supt O'Brien who describes them as "lethal weapons", cost up to €5,000 and are often given as birthday presents to children aged 10 to 15 by their parents.
WHAT BAFFLES HIM and other senior gardaí in the area is a perceived lack of co-operation from parents and adults generally in accident prevention strategies. "Locals see those young fellows on the road with the end-of-life cars but they say nothing . . . Or they will report it anonymously and won't get involved in subsequent court cases. They're not prepared to stand up and be counted. Guards go to warn parents about their children racing quads and get no co-operation whatever. It's an Inishowen culture."
He says wearily that gardaí are well aware of the widespread trauma caused by the death of young people on the roads and have been personally affected by it.
"Last weekend, as a manager in charge of Inishowen, I found it most distressing that these incidents were happening on my patch - and I take it personally. We too have children and you'd be acutely aware of the risks they face as a driver or passenger on the roads."
After the triple tragedy in July last year, in which 16-year-old Áine O'Leary, the niece of a local sergeant, was killed, "a boyracers target group" was set up by Chief Supt Noel V White. In three months, 200 cars were seized for being dangerously defective or being modified without notifying insurance companies.
"But despite what we were finding, the general attitude of parents was that their sons were being harassed," recalls Supt O'Brien.
It is believed that in a significant number of fatal accident cases, the young drivers had already come to the attention of gardaí and been cautioned.
A STRING OF strategies has included an educational video, compiled and presented by gardaí to transition year and Leaving Cert students throughout Co Donegal, featuring fatal accident survivors such as Liz Anne O'Keeffe and parents of deceased young victims. "Most of the teachers and pupils were stunned into silence - and that lasted for a while. It lasted until the students started driving themselves," said Supt O'Brien.
As well as participating in ongoing initiatives from the multi-disciplinary Donegal Road Safety working group, the Garda here is also running a Driver Improvement Programme - a day of classroom and driving work - in conjunction with the District Court, designed to focus young drivers on the limitations of their own experience. The offender pays €225 for the course and if he can satisfy the judge that he has learned from it, may escape disqualification.
But the depth of the challenge is reflected in the behaviour of one young man last year, who drove through the same static Garda check point three times on the same night, each time without a seat belt, knowing it was costing him two penalty points a time.
"Society in general must accept ownership for the carnage on our roads today", says Supt O'Brien. "I am acutely aware of the trauma these tragedies bring to families. But we can only work with the community to prevent more of them."