Two love birds sitting on a wall, with hair so perfect (seriously, which ones the girl?) while the loan ranger rides around in the background. Bang! They get stuck together by a flying Honda Civic; Bella Lugosi in a black hat looks on. The Judge damns Judas Boy Racer to hell uttering the line "they say the guy without the seat belt did the damage" whoops, I mean "Its quite clear that you were driving too fast to cope with the unexpected!" What the judge meant to say of course was "You were forced to quickly overtake a cretinous old cunt, driving erratically and showing no respect for the road users behind them. The road in question was of a quality typically found in Ireland, i.e. shite, narrow and twisty, laden with potholes and soft margins, its a miracle it hasnt killed more people in the past. I am forced to punish you but in reality its Bertie Aherns balls I should be cutting off!"
I accept that speed is the killer, but its relative to the quality of the carriageway. On certain roads in Ireland, 40kph could be classed as "speeding". Bad roads cause the accidents to begin with. We had clear proof of this earlier in the week with the tragic news of 2 people killed on the N11 in Co. Wicklow. Whats truly shocking is that this same stretch of road has seen 22 accidents on it in this year alone. Think about it, one portion of a road in, less than four months has had 22 accidents occur on it. Shall we blame speeding again? Of course we will, oh and didnt you know, speeding gives you cancer too!
The nub of the problem in Ireland is simple, in fact, it was highlighted in the add above. Overtaking is the most dangerous thing you perform regularly on the road, and we here in Ireland are forced to do it on most roads daily. Motorways should have been carved into the Irish landscape years ago. They are just so much safer to drive on; they let the slower and more cautious drivers travel without the stress induced by single carriageways and they let the more confident driver progress at their own speed, safely. Proof of their safety came recently when two massive pile ups occurred on motorways in Dublin due to fog. Out of all the carnage, involving up to 70 vehicles, unfortunately one woman did loose her life, but try to imagine the death toll if these incidents happened on a national road. Its unthinkable really.
People will always drive dangerously, no matter what you drum into them. The only sure way of achieving a safe constant is to provide a safe surface for them to drive upon, and until a more serious acceptance of the quality of the roads being to blame for accidents in Ireland, I will continue to ignore and ridicule Irish Road Safety campaigns.
How the add should have ended
The title of this post was designed with just one purpose, to catch your attention. Just like the initiative in Co. Louth, where they put wrecks of cars on the side of the road with the sign "Slow down, or you could be next". Excellent idea, lets cause a few more accidents by curious drivers rubber-necking.
We can blame the roads all we want, it's still the people speeding on them that cause the deaths. We can blame gun laws in the US for shooting, it's still the arsehole pulling the trigger causes it.
ReplyDeleteYou can't point to the pile up as proving better roads fix everything. You can point to every single one of the eejits speeding in fog that caused the problem.
Yes, people will still speed. If the speed camera system was privatised, with the owners getting a commission of the fines, there would be a dozen speed cameras to every mile of road and people would stop speeding. Those that didn't should lose their car and their license.
So many people point out the slow driver in front of them as an excuse to speed. Tough shit. They pay road tax and have a right to be there. You may pay road tax, but you do not have the right to speed and overtake on dangerous roads. Or do you? And have the right to drive as fast as your car will go, just because you are on a motorway, and ignoring the heavy fog?
This problem cannot be fixed with better roads. Unless you also have better cars, make everyone buy a volvo less than 2 years old, so that they are safer in the high speed crash. Fix the speeders.
Thanks for your comment Gerry. Unfortunately I think a few of my points flew over you head like a speeding honda civic.
ReplyDeleteI never said better roads fix everything, I pointed out that better roads save lives. Whether it was fog on a motorway or fog on a national road, people would still have driven inappropriately.
Slower drivers pay their taxes and have a right to be there, absolutely! If you reread my post you will see that I'm in favor of drivers being able to drive at a pace they feel confident at. This is possible on a dual carriage way. I too however pay my taxes and have never felt that other drivers have the right to dictate the speed I travel at, as long as its within the law and safe for the conditions. Paying your taxes doesnt give you authority, eitherway.
Like I also mentioned, speeding is relative. Why was it ok to travel between Fermoy and Rathcormac at 100kph one day and suddenly the next, anything over 80 is classed as speeding? Did something suddenly happen to the road overnight? Another problem with roads in ireland, which was meant to be addressed with the changeover to kph, is that all the roads are given uniform speed limits. As it stands, speed limits are just there for legality and not safety.
I think its absolute madness that we live in a country where there are signs for dangerous junctions, dangerous bends, black spots... strune across main roads, if these sections of the roads are so dangerous, then why not fix them?
I'm not apologising for people who drive badly, but you are playing Russian Roulette when you drive on the roads here, you dont know whats coming next.
The bottom line: Better roads are safer roads. While they do not automatically promote safer driving they do radically reduce the chances of a fatal road accident.
you are an idiot. politely putting this your views on the road safety ad were wrong and you missed the point completely with the advertisement winning an effectiveness award. Also the reason the speed limit was dropped on the fermoy road was more than likely due to people like you who think speeding is relative to how confident you are as a driver causing accidents because they were unable to react to a situation that suddenly occurred and due to their high levels of speed. Their is a reason why the RSA are promoting a reduction in speed from drivers. Its because statistically proven speed kills, not bad roads.
ReplyDelete