A SENIOR garda has said this week that West Cork drivers need to start heeding road safety messages.
He was commenting on the recent figures showing truly shocking increases in the detection rates of road traffic offences.
With garda numbers down throughout the country, it is even more worrying to see that detections are still going up – which surely implies the instances of poor driving are probably even more prevalent than the figures suggest.
Among the offences on the increase are drink and drug driving, speeding, non-wearing of seatbelts, and driving while holding a mobile phone.
Of course, the West Cork figures are not unique, but they are the ones of most concern to local gardaí whose brief is to help enforce the law, thereby making the roads safer for everyone.
Last year there were five fatalities on roads in West Cork, 19 across the entire county, and 174 people killed across the entire State. These tragedies came at a time when the message of taking care on the roads was never being highlighted more widely.
With such a huge hike in road deaths in recent years, it is really frightening to think that the ‘safer driving’ message is simply not getting through to some motorists. We have stringent penalties in this country for driving offences, but they don’t seem to be acting as any great deterrent to some drivers.Figures show that 69 motorists were arrested between North and West Cork for drunk driving during Christmas.
There were also 201 speeding detections, along with 65 detections for using a mobile phone when driving, during that period.
Looking at the year in general, for 2024 there was a 16% increase in arrests for driving while intoxicated – which could represent either drink or drug-taking, and there was an 18% rise in people caught speeding.
But the really worrying statistic is still the regular use of mobile phones by motorists while driving.
These same drivers may not have heard Dr Jason van der Velde’s comments last year in this newspaper.
The West Cork emergency doctor told us last April that he had attended fatal accidents where young victims were still holding their phones in their hands.
Cork motorists need to focus on their driving and try to avoid distractions, especially from mobile phones, he said.
Now, less than a year later, a senior garda is repeating that message.
The rise in people driving while on their phone has gone, in just one year, from 353 detections in 2023 to 659 detections last year.
The phone is the biggest offender when it comes to motorists losing focus, Dr Jason said last April. ‘The big thing that we have going at the moment is that all-invasive mobile phone – that constant need for screens, and to look at screens and look at texts. We have to put our phones away. Hands-free car kits are available, they’re not expensive, those phones need to be put down … and away,’ he said.
Our generation didn’t grow up with these distractions, he noted. ‘We’re not naturally drawn to them. I’m afraid our young people are, without question, addicted to their mobile phones,’ said the emergency responder.
This week we are once again hearing the pleas from those involved in going to the scenes of horrific crashes, asking motorists to just put their phones away while they are in control of these massive, and often fatally destructive, machines.
And then there are those who don’t wear seat belts. Some years ago, after consistent advertising campaigns, we thought we had won that war. The public were finally realising the value in having that little strap of taut material wrapped around them.
It takes two seconds to belt up, and yet it could save our lives.
But it seems we are losing the battle again. Last year, there was a shocking 18% increase in the number of drivers who hadn’t belted up, compared with the 2023 figure.
‘We need people to hear the road safety message,’ said the garda inspector this week. ‘Slow down, belt up, don’t drink and drive, and don’t be distracted while driving by using your mobile phone.’
And, as he said so starkly himself, saying sorry afterwards doesn’t wash with families who have to bury their loved one.
