Comment: Have the conversation about unsafe driving

It was another bleak bank holiday weekend with three people losing their lives on Irish roads, bringing the total number of fatalities for the year to 147.

An Garda Siochana's October Bank Holiday Weekend Roads Policing Operation saw 1,200 drivers detected driving in excess of the posted speed limit.

Among those detections was one driver who was caught travelling at 167km/h in an 80km/h zone on the R162, Leggagh, Castletown.

Let that sink in; a driver hitting a speed of 104mph on a rural Meath road. He/She may not appreciate it now as court dates and a potential loss of licence follows but that checkpoint probably saved their lives and that of anybody in the vehicle with them and those coming in the opposite direction. The outcome of a collision at that speed could only be catastrophic.

One wonders was that driver familiar with the area, did they feel they knew it so well that they could hit insane speeds and know the next bend and what lay around the next corner. Were they passing neighbours gates, did they know who owned the field they were whizzing by? And more importantly, did the people living along the R162 at Leggagh, Castletown know that car and who was behind the wheel?

We really need to address the rising number of fatalities on our roads by encouraging people to have life-saving conversations with family members and friends about their unsafe driving behaviours.

The RSA TV campaign calling on friends and family to “Chat to your loved ones about their unsafe driving today. So you don’t lose them tomorrow,” is a hugely important piece of work. The TV edit puts viewers in the ‘point of view’ of a chief mourner at a funeral. As the advert progresses, we see that it is the funeral of a young man. As we exit from the church, the door opens and suddenly we are back in the family home where the young man is about to go in his car. We hear a voice call him back but she hesitates and says ‘oh it’s nothing’. The advert ends on the young man smiling and closing the door, and the chance to say something to him about his unsafe driving has been lost forever.

This hard-hitting approach is designed to motivate people to start a conversation about unsafe driving behaviours to help save lives.

The family of that driver reaching 167kph at Leggagh in Castletown have been spared an unspeakable tragedy. They need to grab him or her now and have that conversation. It’s one we all need to have.