Sir, - It strikes me that many of the deaths on our roads are caused by a poor system of policing. This is not a criticism of the gardai who, by and large, do a good job with limited resources. But I do feel that training and policing methods need to be changed to reflect the reality of a huge increase in vehicles on the roads, a dangerous licensing system (provisional), speeding and drink driving. To cite just two examples: I regularly drive on the M50 where I recently saw two youths walking on the hard shoulder and a garda jeep drove by them. As traffic was moving quite slowly I am certain that the officers saw them; secondly, every morning people can be seen standing on the motorway hard shoulder waiting for lifts to work - the same people in the same places every day. The gardai have to have spotted this activity but I have never yet seen one of the pedestrians or the drivers who pick up the pedestrians being challenged.
I note these incidents because having lived in the US for years I can say with absolute certainty that all similar activity in America would definitely result in the pedestrians being escorted off the motorway and receiving tickets and motorists seen picking up these people would also receive tickets. Consequently, this type of dangerous activity is a rare occurrence in the US. All drivers in America know that if they commit a motoring offence and it is seen by the police they will definitely receive a ticket. Irish drivers know that they probably won't get caught and if the are, there is a reasonable chance they will get away with just a warning.
The gardai need to start enforcing rigorously the rules of the road or else many more road-related funerals will take place. - Yours, etc.
Trevor Troy, Navan Road, Dublin 7