Seanad debates
Wednesday, 5 February 2003
Road Safety: Motion.
I take issue with Senator Browne on the extent to which we have achieved the target numbers. In 1997, 472 people were killed on our roads. Since the implementation of the Government's road safety strategy we have seen a significant decrease in the number of road fatalities. By 2000 the number had dropped to 415 and by 2002 it had fallen to 379, as Senator Wilson pointed out. Obviously, one death on the road is one too many and represents a personal tragedy. We would all like to have a road system which is completely free of accidents but, given the human error factor, that is not possible. We were short of the target by 0.3%. It is not nice to bandy statistics about and clap ourselves on the back because people are still dying on the roads but we are all in this together. We all have a duty of care to others and ourselves when using the roads. We must show respect for others and work together in trying to come up with solutions involving policies and laws that can be enforced to ensure road deaths do not increase again.
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