Dr. Declan Bedford:

I am sure that when we were younger, we drove faster than we do now. We do not see the hazards. Another problem is that when young men are with their mates in the car, there are high jinks and 100% attention is not paid to the road. That is contrary to the trend among others. When they have a passenger in the car, they are safer because there is another set of eyes on the road. The difficulty with the young men is that they do not have the experience, are full of life and take too many chances. Therefore, they will be involved in crashes and bad decision-making. That is common the world over, unfortunately. The trend is similar among the ladies, even though the percentage is much lower. While only 25% of the crashes involve ladies, the number is higher in the younger age group.

When you look at the number of road crashes, it is remarkable that about 25% of fatal road crashes involve speed and about 30% to 35% involve alcohol or drugs. One of the extraordinary things about road safety is that 26% of people involved in such crashes were not wearing a seat belt. This seems extraordinary in this day and age. I went to the Garda headquarters and reviewed 900 deaths over a period spanning a couple of years. It was a bit harrowing at times. One person who had been drinking and who had gone home to his bed was rung by a friend who said he could not get home. He went out to collect him, not having driven earlier that night, and he ended up getting killed. There was another case in which I saw an unfinished text by the driver. As the Deputy mentioned before, the crashes are harrowing. Unfortunately, young males are the biggest problem.