The hazards of driving for work and meaningfully improving road safety
Christmas is all about giving, and celebrating life. Sadly, for many families, it is a time of lives needlessly lost on our roads.
If it takes brutal frankness to help cut the tapestry of tragedy that haunts our roads, and ruins the lives of many each festive season, then bring on the horrible figures showing how many have died and how and when – not just for Christmas but for the whole year.
Pictured: (L-R) Derek Lynam, Vehicle Inspector at the RSA, Jenny Carson, Project Manager at the European Transport Safety Council, Jonathan Kelly, Transport Officer at the RSA, Eamonn O’Sullivan, Inspector at the Health and Safety Authority, Superintendent Tom Murphy, An Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, Deirdre Sinnott, Senior Inspector at the Health and Safety Authority, Sam Waide, CEO at the Road Safety Authority, Donna Price, Founder and Chair of the Irish Road Victims’ Association (IRVA), Inspector Kevin White, An Garda Síochana Gregory McMahon, General Manager at Egis Ireland and Andrew Reynolds, CEO at Reynolds Logistics.
A list of experts gathered in The Johnstown Estate in Enfield, Co Meath yesterday (26th November) to highlight the studies and surveys of one aspect of transport in particular – driving for work, with special emphasis on HGVs.
They pose their own potential for carnage. That was the blunt message from the experts: those who witness the bloody misery at the scene of a collision; and those whose daily task it is to find and tell the underlying cause of the carnage so they can warn and advise ways of reducing death, destruction and injury – all year round.
The key outcome when all was said and done in Enfield was that those at the wheel and those who employ them need to be prepared – fully and regularly – to keep themselves safe and those they share the road with.
Read the full report as well as all of the findings from the event in the December/January issue of the Auto Trade Journal, available early next week.