A major road traffic accident on the outskirts of Westport, Co Mayo, 25 years ago still affects Mr Michael Corbett (41), from Newport, Co Mayo.
A back-seat passenger in the car and aged just 16 at the time, Mr Corbett suffered a broken spine as a result of the collision which left him paralysed from the shoulders down, a state in which he remains today.
One of five people travelling in the car on the wet August night in question, all Mr Corbett remembers is hearing a loud bang and then waking up in hospital. Two other passengers were killed in the accident, and the remaining two were injured.
As a founder of the Centre for Independent Living in his home town of Newport, it is not surprising that Mr Corbett has strong views on the standard of driving on Irish roads. Equally, there are a number of issues he would like to raise with the Government in relation to the provision of adequate continuing care services for people with disability.
Mr Corbett believes the law which allows people to drive with a provisional licence without having passed, and perhaps even having failed, a driving test is hugely influential in terms of the number of accidents.
He believes the lack of any reasonable public transport service is another factor. He also points to the movement of large farm machinery, something which is only allowed in other European countries at night.
Another issue which must be addressed is the matter of slow drivers, whom he considers to be a real danger to other motorists.
"There is so much talk about speed and drink-driving, but very few people talk about very slow drivers," he says.
News that there were 12 more deaths over the bank holiday weekend is not surprising, he says. "The driving test in this country is a Mickey Mouse test. A lot of those deaths are unnecessary because the driving is so bad.
"There is no compulsory number of driving lessons a person must take before they can go on the road. There is no written test or no test on a motorway. Meanwhile, there are more and more cars coming on the roads and less and less room for them, and I don't think pumping money into roads is the answer.
"It should be made a lot more difficult for people to get on the road. The way it is now, someone buys a car and can go out on the road straight away. You can't do that with a shotgun."
The head of CIL in Newport, Mr Corbett focuses on lobbying Government agencies for more recognition for people with disabilities. "This is an area, I think, that people just don't talk about in relation to car accidents. The news deals with the number of people killed, but there are a lot of pretty serious things that happen other than death."