Remarks by President McAleese for launch of Christmas Road Safety Campaign,National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, Wednesday November 25th 2009

Minister Dempsey, Mr. Henry Murdoch Chair of the National Rehabilitation
Hospital, Dr. Gay Byrne Chair of the Road Safety Authority, Garda
Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Major General Dave Ashe, Acting Chief of
Staff of the Defence Forces agus a chairde, Dia dhíbh ar maidin.

I am grateful to Noel Brett for inviting me to this launch of the 2009
Christmas Road Safety Campaign.  In fact the entire country should be
grateful to the Road Safety Authority for the campaign and to the National
Rehabilitation Hospital for hosting its launch.  Next to the cold
graveyards that hold the bodies of those killed on our roads, this place
knows more than any other about the broken bodies, the shattered lives that
result from the simplest and ordinary of journeys to and from home, to and
from work, to and from school, to and from the pub, the shop, the airport…
Too many of those journeys have ended either gathered around graves in that
convulsive grief that lasts a lifetime, or here battling through pain and
disability to rebuild lives that were once so full of health and happiness.
Four lovely young women in love with life and its possibilities were killed
only last week bringing an avalanche of grief to their families, to their
friends and university colleagues, to their communities and to every one of
us who has a twenty-something son or daughter who heads off in a car each
day with a cheery wave and no expectation of death.

This campaign is about bringing people safely home. It is about educating
all of us to the dangers, the risks, that lurk in this most common of
activities going out and about from A to B, using our roads that are there
to be used, but used cautiously, conscious that the choices we make can
bring us and others safely home or they can take us to early graves, to
appalling disability or illness and a lifetime of loss, regret and sorrow.

Last year saw the lowest number of fatalities recorded on our roads in the
sixty years of recording this tragic toll.  That means people are
listening, learning, adapting, being more careful, considerate and
responsible than ever before and we thank all of those road users,
particularly drivers, whose changes in behaviour over the last number of
years has helped to save lives.  Those reductions are very welcome and very
reassuring but they are still not enough for in these weeks leading up to
Christmas at any moment someone’s child, parent, brother, sister, partner,
friend may be involved in an accident that will bring them crushed and
devastated to this place or dead and beyond help to their graves.  There is
no acceptable level of death or injury on our roads except zero.

Here in this Hospital, staff know what those words road traffic injury
mean.  Here they tackle the brain injuries, the amputations, the spinal
damage that are unpacked from those simple words.  They do amazing work,
quietly unnoticed except by those whose lives they painstakingly help to
rebuild.  They are due our thanks but also we need to listen to them for
although this work is their vocation, their passion, they would so prefer
if the wards here held no pedestrians, cyclists, drivers or passengers.
No-one has to drive while under the influence of drink or drugs.  It is a
personal choice, selfish, dangerous, inexcusable and downright bad.  No-one
has to drive without a seat belt, or with bald or underpressured tyres.
No-one has to speed, no-one has to answer the mobile phone while driving,
or check their lipstick or root around for a new CD or light up a
cigarette.  Driving requires total concentration, free from distractions we
create, for we need to be ready at all times for the distraction and risks
that others are getting ready to inflict on us whether we like it or not.
The cyclist travelling in the evening without lights or running the red,
the driver who is careless about indicating, the pedestrian walking a
country road at night in dark clothing are all people who have made stupid,
life threatening and utterly avoidable bad choices.

The majority of road users make good responsible choices.  They take good
care on the road and even when they do their absolute best they may well
run into someone doing his or her worst or inadequate best.  The old Irish
proverb ‘ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine’ was never truer than when
applied to using our roads.  We rely on each other to be careful about the
safety of all road users around us.  More than that, the law obliges us to
exercise that care every time we use the roads, not just when it suits us.
The message from this campaign is to be looking out for one another with a
renewed determination and commitment this Christmas.  Arrange the car
pools, pre-book the taxis, nominate designated drivers, offer the elderly
isolated neighbour a lift, don’t pressure any driver to take a drink, don’t
drive when you are exhausted, wear the seat-belts and the high visibility
clothes, slow down, listen to the weather forecasts, notice the dangers,
read the signs, stay focussed.

The professionals involved in road safety  need our fullest cooperation to
stamp out road abuse and I want to thank all who make road safety their
priority -  Government Departments, the Road Safety Authority, An Garda
Síochána, the National Roads Authority, the local authorities,  road safety
organizations and institutions, the schools that try to inculcate a culture
of care into our young, the parents who actively show their children how to
be responsible, the health professionals, carers and injured who educate us
about the devastating consequences of  road abuse.

We can give each other the gift of a safe Christmas or the endless misery
of a Christmas ruined by a road crash.  We all know what to do, so let’s
just do it.  Thanks to those who are doing their best to keep Christmas and
every other day happy and safe on our roads. I wish you all a very safe and
peaceful Christmas and New Year.  Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

ENDS

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