REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY RULES OF THE ROAD WEBSITE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY RULES OF THE ROAD WEBSITE FARMLEIGH, DUBLIN
Dia dhíbh, a cháirde go léir. Tá mé iontach sásta bheith anseo libh inniu.
Good morning and a warm thank you to Noel [Brett, CEO of the RSA] for the invitation to take part in this important event which, for all that it is about words and websites, languages and rules, is truly about the safety of all who use our roads and whose lives and health are daily placed in the hands of others. I spend a good deal of time writing to the families bereaved by car crashes. I dread listening to the catalogue of death and injury which greets us most Monday mornings as we hear of the toll taken by the roads over the weekend. These are not deaths or injuries due to inevitable disease or illness. These are deaths or injuries that did not need to happen. These are events that could have been and should have been avoided. Thankfully the general trend for road fatalities since 2006 has been downwards but we have a long way yet to go.
The Gardaí and the Road Safety Authority are doing great work to make our roads a safer place but of course every single road user has one hundred per cent personal responsibility for his or her actions. Part of that responsibility involves being educated about road use and in particular about road safety. In order to educate ourselves fully we need to be able to easily access the right information.
The website, the new publication of the Rules, the new translations and the very innovative MP3 format, bring access to that education into a new era. As Patron and a big fan of the National Adult Literacy Association, I am really delighted at the way in which your cooperation with NALA shines through the new Rules and modes of access.
The changing demographics of our country are evident in the translations of the Rules not just into Plain English, but into Plain Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Polish too. Many of our road users come from countries which drive on the other side of the road and which have different signage and symbols. For them, this new service is an essential tool in helping them to understand their new homeland and helping to keep them safe from harm on unfamiliar roads and road systems.
Those of us who have spent our entire driving careers here in Ireland also need to keep up to date with the many changes to our road culture - new roads, new layouts, new junction systems, penalty points, theory tests and vast increases in road use have all challenged us to remember that our road education is a process of lifelong learning that starts in childhood and lasts a lifetime.
Our behaviour as road users is the single biggest danger factor in road safety and it is very reassuring to know that the RSA and the Irish Insurance Federation are distributing 1¾ million copies of the English-language edition to every household across Ireland. It needs to be read and reread, discussed in homes between parents and children, its importance stressed and emphasised day in and day out especially, though not exclusively, to our young male drivers.
Your “He Drives, She Dies” campaign launched last week, for example, highlighting the plight of women dying in accidents involving cars driven by young men will, I hope, confront people with the cold and sober reality that follows the night after driving while drunk, or under the influence of drugs, or showing off by speeding or driving while way too tired.
As a community we need to register our outrage at each of these avoidable stupidities so that it is clear that there is no social tolerance, no culturally acceptable level of this dangerously selfish behaviour. That culture shift is the work of this generation and the work we gather to launch today will play a considerable role in persuading each citizen, one by one, person by person to make road safety their business. Congratulations to all those whose imagination, creativity and skill has contributed to these new and crucial resources.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Go n-éirí go geal libh. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.