There has been a successful reduction in the numbers of road deaths since the introduction of the penalty points system in November, in all categories except motorcycles, the National Safety Council (NSC)said yesterday.
The NSC has found that pedestrian, driver, passenger and cyclist deaths were all down substantially but deaths of motorcycle drivers were up 17 per cent. However, the NSC pointed out motorcyclists themselves were responsible for just 30 per cent of the accidents in which they were involved.
The clear implication of the research was that motorcycle fatalities are an issue for all drivers, NSC chairman Mr Eddie Shaw said.
The statistics for drink- driving were described by Mr Shaw as "chronic". In jurisdictions of comparable population, such as Finland, Victoria or Queensland in Australia, the population had seen a much more vigorous detection rate. In Victoria there were 1.4 million arrests for the purpose of an alcohol test and a similar number in Finland. The number in Queensland was 2.6 million in the same period. In the Republic it was just 12,864.
"The drink-driving intervention rate in Ireland expressed as a rate per head of population is one in every 303 people," Mr Shaw noted. In Queensland it was one in one, and one in three for Victoria.
Gardaí were anxious to improve their detection rate but it depended on resources being allocated, he added. Section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 2002 "considerably widens the scope for intervention by the Garda".
A cyclist was fatally injured on the main Castlebar to Balla road in Co Mayo yesterday. The accident between a car and the cyclist happened at about 6.30 a.m. at Manulla.
