Madam, - I am exasperated by the lack of meaningful Government action to reduce the number of road deaths.
Decisions, decisions, decisions, new laws and penalty points don't matter a damn. Only significant road improvements and concrete procedures of law enforcement will be successful. - Yours, etc,
ANDREW J MORAN, Woodford, Co Galway.
Madam, - As a young person away from Ireland on a "gap year", I write to express my horror at the number of deaths on the country's roads. Every morning, when I read The Irish Times from my desk in Sydney, it seems that I am greeted with the depressing news that more people of my own age are being killed on the roads.
I offer my deepest sympathies to the families touched by this nightmare. Life is risky enough; accidents happen; but with stronger safety measures in place some can be prevented.
More needs to be done. We have the resources to build better roads and to put much stricter road laws in place - so why are we not using them?
While we wait for the Government and the Garda to help, we can also help each other. We can all make the small changes that will save lives. We need to slow down; we need to tell our friends to slow down; we need to take taxis home; we need to pull over to talk on the phone; we need to be more vigilant; we need to stay alive. - Yours, etc,
EMILY LYONS (23), Sydney, Australia.
Madam, - I heard Gay Byrne's interview about road safety on Monday's Morning Ireland. He laid the responsibility for reducing speed on individual drivers. While one can only applaud pleas for more individual responsibility, I did wonder why the Minister for Justice doesn't issue similar appeals to burglars or murderers to be responsible so that society would not have to rely on the Garda to prevent irresponsible behaviour.
I have tried to contact gardaí using the number they have urged citizens to use - 1890 205805. I have not been able to get through since the beginning of this year. A couple of months ago my wife and I saw a car at a dangerous speed on the M50 weaving in and out of traffic. We called 999 (as we had found the above number to be useless) and were informed that we would have to pull in at the nearest town and report the incident in person at a Garda station.
Even though we reported the make, model, and registration number of the car, the garda who answered our call could not dispatch a car to intercept the dangerous driver. Had that been a murder or burglary, would the response have been the same?
In his radio interview Mr Byrne mentioned that while he saw no gardaí on his journey to Donegal there was plenty of activity around the area where he was staying. My own family take plenty of holidays in Inishowen and the only regular police activity we see on the roads is in Northern Ireland.
It would appear that An Garda Síochána has given up on road traffic law enforcement. Most societies rely on the police force to enforce the law; but it seems that gardaí don't realise that police is a verb as well as a noun. - Yours, etc,
CONOR BUCKLEY, Celbridge, Co Kildare.