As the August Bank Holiday approaches, with a predictable surge in increased car travel, the need for motorists to take greater care on the roads becomes imperative. Warnings against drinking and driving, excessive speeding and the failure of drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, are contained in a report by an expert group involved in road safety. It urges that priority be given to the introduction of a penalty points system whereby drivers would lose their licences after a certain number of motoring offences.
Two years ago, the Government announced details of a comprehensive road safety strategy that was designed to reduce the carnage on our roads and make motorists more law-abiding. But many of the fine plans and legislative changes promised by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, have not been implemented. The killing goes on. And politicians continue to wring their hands.
The Minister of State, Mr Bobby Molloy, sought some comfort yesterday in the decline of the number of road deaths and serious injuries over the past three years. But while a reduction in those figures is to be welcomed, they are still unacceptably high. The death rate from road accidents in this State is still double the figure in Britain. We are close to the top of the European league table. Even more worrying, the bad motoring behaviour that contributes to such deaths and injuries continues to worsen.
Nearly 10,000 motorists were found driving with an excess of alcohol in their blood last year, an increase of 16 per cent on 1998. Surveys quoted in the report found the number of cars breaking the speed limits had risen from 36 to 51 per cent between 1991 and 1999. At the same time, the number of commercial vehicles breaking the speed limits jumped from 40 to 66 per cent. The wearing of seat belts came to only 55 per cent, an increase of 4 per cent in eight years and drastically short of the 85 per cent compliance target that was set for the year 2002.
The introduction of on-the-spot fines for speeding, failing to wear seat belts and for other offences has brought about an upsurge in Garda activity. During the past two years, the number of speeding fines imposed rose by 148 per cent to 177,000. And about 50,000 fines for seat-belt offences were issued in the last twelve months. It sounds quite impressive. And it is. But there have been unconscionable delays in the purchase and installation of a computerised system that would allow for the introduction of the promised penalty points system. And legislation dealing with this matter and with new Garda powers concerned with random testing for alcohol, will not be introduced until the autumn, at the earliest. At the same time, and in spite of an increase in the number of driving testers, those seeking a driving test in Dublin can wait for up to ten months before being called to examination. And, because of the increase in the number of cars on the road, the size of the waiting list for driving tests has risen to about 90,000. The system is a shambles.
Calling for the full and urgent implementation of the Road Safety Strategy, the expert group argued that such a course would produce considerable economic benefits in terms of the protection of life, health and property. It estimated that the expenditure of £120m on safety strategy would generate savings of £536m by the year 2002. Apart from any social considerations, figures like that should provide impetus to the Government's decision-making process in favour of safer motoring.