One thousand five hundred pedestrians killed on Irish roads in ten years was the stark message used to launch a new cross-border road safety campaign in Belfast today.
The campaign, developed jointly by the National Safety Council and the Northern Ireland Department of Environment, will employ a series of hard-hitting TV advertisements to get its message across.
The advertisements, aimed at getting drivers and pedestrians to pay more attention on the road, will portray graphically what the promoters say are "the consequences of just a moment's inattention by a pedestrian or a driver."
The advertisements which, according to the sponsor, AXA Insurance, "are possibly the most shocking so far", are part of a series which have already depicted harrowing scenes of the consequences of drink-driving, the need to wear seat belts and the need to reduce speed.
One of the adverts features a teenager writing a text message while crossing the road. The boy is hit by a van while not paying attention to the traffic.
Another advert features a young male driver who is distracted by a pretty girl as he turns his car into the school road and hits a mother and her young son.
Pedestrian fatalities account for 20 per cent of all road deaths. 1500 pedestrians were killed in the ten years between 1991 and 2000. The number of pedestrians killed in 2001 was 89, 28 per cent of whom were under the age of twenty-five. Seventy five have been killed already this year.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Dr Jim McDaid said: "Pedestrians comprise a quarter of all fatalities. These figures form a frightening backdrop to today's launch."
Northern Ireland parliamentary under-secretary of State, Ms Angela Smith, said: "We cannot accept the death of 1,500 pedestrians on the roads of Ireland, in a decade, as just a fact of life; a consequence of modern day living."
Ms Smith said: "There is no reason why we should. So many lives are lost needlessly, because drivers and pedestrians do not exercise proper care and fail to behave appropriately on the roads."
