As road deaths rise, and cycling fatalities reach record levels, the number of gardai enforcing road safety has plummeted.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has expressed its concern at the significant fall in the number of gardai assigned to enforce road traffic laws and improve safety.
Chairperson of the RSA, Liz O’Donnell, said the decline of almost 40 per cent in the number garda in the Traffic Corps was a “very worrying trend”.
She was responding to news that numbers in the Traffic Corps had fallen to 750 by the end of last year, having been at 1,200 in 2009; a decline of 37.5 per cent.
News of the drop in enforcement comes after a year in which 12 cyclists died on the roads of the Republic; up from five fatalities the previous year.
“A highly visible presence of Gardaí on the road, plus the fear of enforcement, is the single biggest factor in changing people’s behaviour when using the road,” Ms O’Donnell said in a statement.
Advertisement
“The men and women in An Garda Síochána who enforce traffic laws should be very proud of their contribution to saving lives and we owe them a great debt.
“They are doing a brilliant job with the resources available.
“However it is vital that the necessary human and technical resources are made available, to grow the number of Gardai in the Traffic Corps.
“The RSA acknowledges that recruitment and training of new Gardai has recommenced and would request that as a priority, road safety policing and the provision of new resources to the Traffic Corps be prioritised.”
Related News
Liz O’Donnell, centre, is concerned at the decline in the number of gardai assigned to road traffic duties.
At the start of this year Ms O’Donnell, who recently took on her RSA role from Gay Byrne, said the increase in cycling deaths was very worrying.
She believed cyclists and motorists needed to respect each other more and accept they must share the roads.
She said the RSA had tracked the number of cyclist injuries on the roads in recent years.
Those figures, combined with the data on last year’s fatalities, proved the problem was a long term one rather than simply one bad year.
“Drivers' behaviour towards cyclists and cyclists' behaviour towards drivers and other cyclists have not evolved as they should have,” she said in an Irish Independent column at the time.
“Many motorists begrudge the space on the road to cyclists and complain about cyclists' behaviour.
“Cyclists too are frustrated by what they see as drivers' intolerance. Both need to make a New Year's resolution to share the road and obey the rules.
“Motorists must commit to share road space with cyclists with courtesy.”
Topics
