|
Dear Editor,
According to the Road Safety Authority (RSA), over 400 people die on our roads each year. Much of this injury and many of these deaths would not occur if drivers and passengers were adequately restrained by safety belts. Without a seat belt, three out of four people will be killed or seriously injured in a 50 KPH (31.1 MPH) head-on crash.
In light of this, the question I pose is how exactly does a 50KPH head-on crash in a car differ from a head-on crash in an inner-city bus? If anything it would be far more catastrophic. After all, the speed limit in the city is 50KPH and such buses are well capable of reaching these speeds.
There are currently no seat belts installed on inner-city buses, not only in Galway but throughout the country. It's surprising that a major accident has not already occurred due to the lack of seatbelts and the overcrowding that takes place on board these buses.
It only took the Navan school bus tragedy in Co. Meath where five schoolgirls died, the Clara school bus crash in Co. Offaly where one child died and another 32 were injured, and the Clashaganny bus crash in Co. Roscommon where several children were injured for the government to step in and enforce seat belt installation in all school buses nationwide.
As a direct result of these incidences all school buses today are legally obliged to have seatbelts installed and the overcrowding problem has been stemmed.
It's so unfortunate however that the problem was only addressed and rectified after the loss of many young lives that could and should have been prevented by some pro-active thinking within the Department of Transport.
This delayed approach by the government is typical of its stance on many issues; wait for the problem to arise and then go about fixing it. The school bus situation may have been rectified but the inner-city buses still do not have seatbelts installed and a large majority of schoolchildren use these buses to get to and from school on a daily basis. This begs the question as to why the school bus seat belt legislation did not extend to inner-city buses?
What's missing in government today at both local and national levels is a more pro-active approach to such issues. I don't think that any citizen is going to quarrel with a politician who seeks to implement a measure that saves lives. In fact, I'm amazed that more is not done by politicians to actively improve society by taking pro-active measures. Just because something is the way it is does not mean that it's the way it should be.
Now is the time for the Minister for Transport, Mr Noel Dempsey, TD, to take the initiative and get seat belts installed on inner-city buses and prevent overcrowding before another tragedy unfolds and more children become RSA statistics.
Yours,
Michael Cresham
Turloughmore
Comments () » |
 |
 |
