Road Safety Authority (RSA) chairwoman of the Liz O'Donnell has called on parents to check their car seats through the RSA to ensure their children's safety.
One in ten of the 262 children who died on the State’s roads between 1997 and 2012 were not wearing a seatbelt or child restraint, she warned.
“A lot of people are driving around thinking ‘I’m a good driver, I’m looking after my children’. Meanwhile, their precious cargo, the most important thing in their lives, is not adequately protected.”
“[Children are] so vulnerable because of their size, their weight and their age, that in a crash they are the most vulnerable of road users.”
The RSA’s annual international road safety conference takes place in Dublin Castle today, focusing on child safety on Irish roads.
Road traffic incidents are the leading cause of child mortality in Ireland, account for 36.7 per cent of all child deaths. Last year 14 children under 15 died on Irish roads, an increase on the five child road deaths in 2013.
Ms O’Donnell said RSA researchers “took issue” with a report in the Irish Times which drew a link between the low level of penalty points issued in some counties with higher fatality rates.
“Our researchers took issue with that report because it was based on the penalty points, where they were issued, and where people were living rather than where they were driving,” she said.
“There may be some areas where it needs to be tweaked in terms of extracting information and digging down what they mean, but the penalty points have been of enormous assistance to us in terms of deterrents.”
Ms O’Donnell said she believed Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan was open to boosting the Garda Traffic Corps following a noticeable drop in Garda road presence in recent years. There are now less than 750 gardaí in the traffic corps, down from about 1,200 in 2009.
“There are promises of new recruits being trained at the moment and new additional gardaí being put back towards the traffic corps,” she said, adding that she would like to see at least 1,000 gardaí on the roads.
Moyagh Murdock, chief executive officer of the RSA, said the decision to replace 80km/h signs on small rural roads with white signs with black diagonal lines was based on “research and evidence” that people would adjust their driving behaviour accordingly following the change.
“It was bringing the whole speed limit system into disrepute when you put a sign up to say you can go at 80km/h, it’s not a target.
Ms Murdock said the new road traffic bill, which is currently going through the Oireachtas and proposes the option of a 20km/h in some residential areas and housing estates, will empower local authorities to create safer roads for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.
She said the RSA's goal was to increase the number of 30km/h speed zones around the State in line with best practice in European countries such as Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
