PARC founder Susan Grey calls for greater garda presence on roads

The founder of the PARC road safety group, Susan Grey, has called for action from the Government in a bid to reduce the heartbreaking rise in the number of people who have lost their lives on our country’s roads.

To date, this year 127 people have lost their lives on the roads, an increase of 25% on the same period last year. 

PARC was established by Susan Grey in 2006 following the death of her husband Steven in  a road traffic collision.

This week, Mrs Grey called for more garda visibility on our roads. Speaking to RTÉ said: “The first thing we would like to see is an increase in garda members assigned to the roads policing units. At present we have only got 678 - two years ago we had fifty-eight more than that so we need to see an increase.”

PARC also wrote to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in relation to the increase in the number of road deaths. In his response the Taoiseach said he was ‘concerned that the country was going backwards’ in relation to road safety. 

Mrs Grey said that garda checkpoints could help deter people from breaking the law while driving: “Enforcement, or the fear of coming across a Garda checkpoint on the road, or the fear of being prosecuted, seems to be the only way that some motorists will learn. We need more roads policing units, and we need more checkpoints on the roads.”

Mr Vardadkar said he has spoken to the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, about the need for greater garda enforcement on the country’s roads. 

Opposition parties have said there needs to be more expenditure on dangerous roads and in particular dangerous road junctions.  

Earlier this week, it was announced that motorists who commit more than one offence will face increased penalty points under a plan going to Government. The current system, where points are only applied to the more serious violation, is set to change, meaning drivers committing multiple offences would get penalty points for each breach of the law.

Government ministers are to meet this week to identify ways to reverse a trend of rising road fatalities.