The undeniable benefits of the automobile have come at a terrible cost - in damage to the landscape, pollution of the atmosphere, destruction of wildlife and, most of all, in the incalculable number of human lives lost, marred by injury, or blighted by grief. And the death-rate on our roads seems almost to mock all attempts to put a brake on it. In July, the launch of the Garda's Operation Lifesaver campaign in the Louth/Meath division was followed within days - in that very area - by an appalling collision between a car and a truck which claimed six lives and left 10 children fatherless. And last week's launch of a new campaign by the National Safety Council has been followed by the deaths of 20 people on the Republic's roads within five days. In the latest fatal crash, on Tuesday night, a car carrying three young men collided head-on with another driven by the former Democratic Left senator Michael Enright, killing all four.
The Garda's 1997 initiative on road safety has been both energetic and well-publicised: up to September 21st, the Operation Lifesaver scheme had led to 583 arrests for drink driving, 12,700 fines and 8,400 summonses for speeding, 7,650 fines for failure to wear a seat-belt and 700 penalties for vehicle faults. These figures are, on the face of it, impressive; yet the most important figure of all - the death toll - shows no sign of falling. So far this year, 358 people have lost their lives on the Republic's roads, matching the total for the first 10 months of last year. In 1996 as a whole, 453 were killed, compared with 433 in 1995 and 404 in 1994. In Northern Ireland, meanwhile, road death rates have remained fairly static, increasing the suspicion that the rising toll in this State is an unwelcome side-effect of economic success. Even in the North, however, the number of people dying on the roads has vastly exceeded those killed as a result of the Troubles, including the worst years of the conflict. And in the Republic, 10 times as many people died on the roads last year as were murdered - at a time of rising concern about crime and calls for "zero tolerance".
Yet the scandalous carnage was not an issue in the recent election; nor does it provoke protests in the streets or marches to the Dail. The National Safety Council pointed out last week that speeding ranks ahead of drunken driving as the most common contributory factor in road accidents; but respectable people can still admit - or indeed boast about - speeding without being condemned by their peers. The unpalatable truth is that driving too fast for safety, rather than being regarded as criminal lunacy, remains socially acceptable. While that is so, the best efforts of the authorities are doomed to fail. In the midst of the latest spate of deaths, Garda spokesmen have reiterated that Operation Lifesaver must be given time - perhaps six to 12 months - to prove its effectiveness; and they have rightly reminded us that road safety is not just a matter for gardai, but for "the driver behind the wheel."