Professor Denis Cusack:

As I will make a presentation to the citizens’ assembly on Saturday and to an English group on drugs driving next week, I may have the answer to the question, thankfully. In terms of the graph, there are certain points where one sees significant decrease. Through my 30 years in forensic medicine and road traffic medicine, the biggest decrease was in 2007, when we implemented the 2006 mandatory alcohol roadside testing. That was one of the most significant measures. It took time. I remember debating with the Office of the Attorney General whether it would be an infringement on personal freedom, as we were told. Like many things in law, road traffic Acts must be proportionate. That testing saved lives, however.

If I may say so, the founding of the RSA was also very significant. It gave a focus. Gay Byrne, Lord rest him, and I had numerous discussions with Mr. Waide’s predecessor. I refer to the education work the RSA is doing. We need to target young people. That has not changed. Every year I tell my wife I am giving the same message out but she keeps reminding me there is a new audience every year and there is a need to repeatedly state the same thing.

The other aspect is the focus by the Garda on roads policing. In recent years there has been the road safety strategy and the work in that regard. I am trying to be positive because one can quickly fall into negativity. The road safety transformation partnership board, which succeeded a high-level ministerial committee, gets approximately 17 or 18 organisations around a table. We put our resources together and work together. We are not siloed. We work on our own. That is important. In addition, there has been the role of Ministers from all political parties through the past 15 or 20 years. Ministerial commitment and input are critical. That is why we have done it.

I was on a Zoom meeting yesterday with colleagues in England and they, too, are seeing an increase in road deaths. I was at a forensic meeting the week before last and many of my colleagues on the Continent are seeing an increase in road deaths. Why is that the case? There is a theory that, post Covid, people are enjoying freedom again and perhaps, as a society, we are letting loose. We often talk about what the Garda, the Minister or the Legislature can do but, in most cases, it comes down to individual behaviour. I want to be very sensitive about this. As a coroner who has dealt with investigating hundreds of car crashes and other vehicle crashes through the years, I mean this with the greatest sensitivity. It may be down to a person who foolishly drank too much, took drugs, did not wear a seatbelt, did not pay attention or used a mobile phone. We have to be very careful, particularly after what has happened. It is not that we are telling people they are to blame and it is their fault but we need to get back to that individual responsibility. What I say to people is, "For God’s sake, if you are not killed, you could kill somebody else or maim or injure your brother, girlfriend or boyfriend in the car. Think of what you can do to yourself and others." It is all of those things. Mandatory alcohol testing is critical, however, and the introduction of the device for drugs driving last year is already making a difference.