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.
