Sun glare campaign hopes to gain national exposure
A road safety campaign started by Dingle man Ted Creedon might soon go nationwide after Kerry County Council agreed to press Transport Minister Éamon Ryan to encourage the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to warn drivers of the dangers of sun glare.
At the monthly meeting of Kerry County Council, held on February 19, the council approved two separate motions put forward by West Kerry Councillors Séamus Cosaí MacGearailt and Breandán Fitzgerald, calling on Minister Ryan to encourage the RSA to produce a road safety campaign for radio and television warning motorists of the dangers of sun glare and how to deal with it.
Meanwhile, the campaign is progressing locally and over the past 10 days hundreds of car stickers warning the public of the dangers of sun glare have been distributed among pupils at 18 primary schools from Dún Chaoin to Castlemaine and from An Clochán to Derryquay. The stickers, which were provided in Irish or English depending on the principal language of the school, carry the warning ‘Bí Aireach ar Dhalladh Gréine’ or ‘Beware of Sun Glare’ and students were asked to take them home and to put them on the back window of the family car – on the outside.
The stickers were produced by Dingle Printing (Formerly Image and Design) who printed an extra 1,000 stickers at no charge because the printer, Edwin de Groot, supports the concept and the strategy. Dúchas an Daingin, which promotes the Irish Language Plan for Dingle town, also got on board funding the printing of 300 Irish Language stickers.
Ted Creedon, whose career has included working as a journalist for both The Kerryman and Radio Kerry, embarked on the sun glare campaign after his wife and sister-in-law were seriously injured in a crash near their home in Ballintaggart last year after they were blinded by low February sun.
Ted said the public needed to be educated on the danger of sun glare through the medium of television and radio, especially local radio, on a regular basis, and in particular during the winter months.
Cllr Breandán Fitzgerald said this week that road accident investigations don’t record the influence of sun glare “but it’s obviously a factor and people need to be warned of the danger and advised how to cope with it”.
“West Kerry is particularly susceptible to sun glare because of the east – west orientation of a lot of the roads here,” he said. “Most people are familiar with sun glare but they need to be made more aware of the dangers and how to avoid them.”