Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 21, after line 40, to insert the following:

“PART 6

Measures to improve vehicle safety

26. The Minister shall under the Innovation 2020 and other programmes cause to be conducted research on vehicle safety such as alcohol locking devices, vehicle immobilisation where seat belts are not worn, driver exhaustion recognition, obstacle recognition and driver distraction.”.

Jack Short's study on cyclists states that the injury understatement for vulnerable modes, such as cycling, indicates that the number hospitalised with clinically serious injuries is ten times higher than the police serious injury figure. We must have a suite of policies to deal with this problem. The Minister will be in the House again tomorrow to deal with this.

We had a debate with the Minister of State with responsibility for science and technology in which it was stated that there is no transport section in Innovation 2020. A section for transport could offer valuable contributions on topics, such as the alcohol locking devices used by some bus companies, vehicle immobilisation when seat belts are not worn, driver exhaustion recognition - when the car will set off an alarm if it sees the driver blinking and which is already fitted in some models of cars - obstacle recognition and on the general problem of driver distraction.

I support what the Minister has done in regard to making phone calls and texting while driving. Senator Crown brought legislation through this House on smoking in cars. Any technology which inhibits driver distraction will save lives. That is the purpose of the amendment. Complex factors need to be addressed. The Minister has already accomplished much regarding drivers but the vehicle has a role to play and we have listed those factors which may be on the agenda in terms of road safety in the next semester.

Amendment No. 9 will address the improvement of road infrastructure safety. That was a topic on "Today with Sean O'Rourke" recently. We have roads with design faults or maintenance faults and some are not being addressed. Maintenance of roads is the function of county council engineering departments. Have we overlooked their contribution to the deaths and injuries? Should there be a liability on local authorities which do not maintain their roads to a certain standard and which become hazards? The scope in this regard is quite large. Road accident rates on dual carriageways are half those on single carriageways because head-on accidents are eliminated while the figure is halved again on motorways because junction accidents are eliminated. We must ensure that in planning, design and maintenance of roads, we do not have infrastructure which adds to the problem the Minister is addressing here.

Amendment No. 10 deals with the subject of adequate data. PARC and Jack Short state that we are seriously underestimating the safety problem which the Minister has tackled so thoroughly. Rates are probably an average of three times for injuries and ten times for pedal cyclists. That was admitted by the Road Safety Authority on "Today with Sean O'Rourke". We must get the data in order to fully comprehend this problem. What I am doing here is allowing Parliament to endorse that. The problem has been hidden away by inadequate data but it has caused the kind of misery we have all seen and much misery which perhaps we have not yet seen or of which we are not aware because it is in data general practitioners, hospitals and insurance providers have. Let us have comprehensive data. I hope the Minister will be returned after the general election in order to tackle to the problem with comprehensive data and more tools in the toolkit to deal with vehicles and road or highway conditions. That is the purpose of the amendments.

There is much for us to tackle, although much has been tackled, including the drugs issue, the Northern Ireland interchange, the UK interchange and the 20 km/h speed. There is another agenda we may need to face. Those involved PARC seem to think so, as many of those families have suffered personally from road accidents.We need the comprehensive picture of data to address road conditions and any other measure needed to improve the safety of vehicles such as driverless cars. We are good at other aspects of technology, but we have to get up to speed on this one.