TDs lashed for ‘soft’ drink-driving views
Families attack deputies who oppose stricter laws
FAMILIES of road traffic victims have hit out at rural TDs who oppose stricter drink-driving laws, saying they would feel differently if they had lost loved ones.
Yesterday, a Road Safety Authority event was held to mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
It brought together families from all over Ireland who have lost someone on our roads.
Michael O’Neill lost his daughter Fiona and her boyfriend Dominic Wogan in a collision in 2001, an hour before they were due to leave for Australia.
He is in favour of ‘anything that makes the roads safer’.
Referring to TDs who oppose stricter laws for drunk driving, Mr O’Neill said he didn’t think a road tragedy had ‘knocked on their door yet. The heartache, the heartbreak that a tragedy like a road crash brings to a family. I think if it did, they might be a bit more sensitive about it’.
He said: ‘It’s hard to describe. It’s with you 24/7. The first thing in the morning, you want to know where Fiona and Dominic are.
‘Last thing at night you remember them. So it’s always with you. There’s a big void in the family.’
Catherine Flaherty lost her sister to a drunk driver. She has also called for stricter legislation and rejects claims that stricter punishments will damage rural Ireland.
‘I lost my sister Delia in a road traffic accident in 2011. She was killed by a drunk-driver who had driven eight kilometres on the wrong side of the motorway,’ she said.
‘She was 33 and my only sister. I come from rural Ireland and what I’m trying to get out to TDs, and other families that would say the same, is: why can’t we go into a pub and have a soft drink? We can still socialise. It doesn’t have to spell the end of socialising in rural Ireland.
‘TDs should put themselves in our shoes: would they want their son or daughter killed as a result of a drunk driver? They can make a change by voting for this ban.’
RSA chief Moyagh Murdock called for the replenishment of the road’s policing unit, saying: ‘We need to see more resources put into that area of policing... as well as the passing of the drink driving legislation.’
Ms Murdock said lives were lost due to the mass falsification of breath tests. ‘I think the harm has been done. I think it had an effect in the numbers we saw killed on our roads,’ she said. ‘I do believe that because the enforcement wasn’t out there – even though the numbers indicated it was happening – I think it led to people taking chances and also believing they wouldn’t get caught.’
Neil Fox lost his sister Donna in a collision 14 months ago, and is championing the Minimum Passing Distance of Cyclists Bill brought forward by TDs Regina Doherty and Ciaran Cannon.
It would require motorists to leave a distance of 1.5 metres between them and a cyclist when overtaking.
‘My sister was only 30 when she was killed cycling to work. She was to get married this year.
‘There’s a huge loss in our family, but you have to think: can you do something positive out of it?’ he said.
So far this year, 133 people have died on our roads.
katie.o’neill@dailymail.ie