More gardaí on roads, and the fear of getting caught, will save lives

JUSTICE Minister Helen McEntee’s plan to use speed cameras to detect drivers using mobile phones and failing to use safety belts has the potential for serious violations of privacy and other unintended consequences. This mass surveillance of the entire population is something that’d bring a smile to the face of China’s Communist Party overlord Xi Jinping. Trouble is, we’re not Chinese and we don’t live in a dictatorship. In fairness, two years ago the Road Safety Authority reported that over a quarter of drivers and passengers killed on our roads hadn’t been wearing a safety belt. About 10% of people seriously injured had no seat belt on and one in five back-seat passengers is equally stupid. And 19% of drivers sometimes read messages and emails on their phones.

With 73 people already killed on our roads so far this year, compared to 56 this time last year, there’s no argument at all that something needs to be done.

But any measure must be proportionate and a minimum in terms of violation of privacy. Clearly, there are too many unintended and very negative consequences that accompany the call by Ms McEntee, left, for monitoring of private citizens on such a grand scale.

In reality, however, it’s all a smokescreen and distraction to avoid us focusing on the real cause of the spike in road deaths, which is the absence of enforcement.

Not enough gardaí are dedicated to road safety duties, and more and more drivers believe that no matter what they do they won’t get caught.

The fear is gone out of it. And until that fear returns, the carnage will continue.