Efforts to address Mayo road safety 'must go beyond headline-grabbing speed limits'
A Mayo TD has criticised the government’s approach to road safety.
Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh argued that a singular focus on speed limits will not deal with the substantive issue and that Mayo County Council should be given more authority and responsibility for ensuring safety on our roads.
Commenting the reduction in speed limits, the first of which came into effect in the last week, the Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment said: “Ambitious action is needed to enforce road safety and to keep our communities safe. Repeated tragedies on our roads demonstrate how urgent and serious this issue is.
“On this, there is no question.
“Too often, families across Ireland are faced with the devastating news that they have lost a loved one on the roads.
“However instead of the headline grabbing one size fits all approach, I have long advocated for a common-sense approach when it comes to speed limits.
“Rather than introducing a blanket reduction which does not make sense in many local areas, the focus instead should be based on evidenced based approaches.
“Of course, in many instances a reduction in speed limits makes sense and is necessary.
“However, there will also be instances where it does not. A reduction in speed limits should be backed up by local knowledge and statistics which clearly show that speeding has contributed to road deaths and/or road collisions there.
“The government must also get serious about education, enforcement and road maintenance. These are primary foundations of all good road safety campaigns, but we not seeing a focus on these factors.
“For too long, the government has dragged their feet on these issues.
“Despite local authorities crying out for more resourcing to maintain local roads for years, the government have turned a blind eye.
"The failure of successive governments to properly fund the upgrading and maintenance of local, regional roads in the Mayo is disgraceful.
"For example the neglect of the R312, connecting Erris to Castlebar, is a shameful indictment.
"The hundreds of roads on awaiting repairs on the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) causes real hardship to people in the county.
“Similarly, they have also failed to equip An Garda Síochána with the tools they need to detect dangerous driver behaviours like speeding, and driving under the influence.
“The majority of road users and motorists are safe, responsible people.
“However, for those who are engage in dangerous behaviours, risking their own lives and those around them, we need to see proper enforcement and resourcing of local authorities.
“I am calling on the Minister for Transport, Daragh O’Brien, to therefore conduct a review of their road safety strategy, and to adopt a common-sense approach to reducing speed limits that is evidence based and relies on local knowledge.”