To date, 133 people have lost their lives on Irish roads.
Chief Superintendent Matthew Nyland (DMR East Division) said about breaking the news to relatives
“It’s absolutely heart-breaking, it’s a very difficult thing to deal with for all sorts of reasons you can imagine. Thinking beyond that, it’s the door you have got to knock on and tell a family they have lost someone. Leading up to Christmas these are families for whom Christmas is never going to be the same again.”
Gerry Flaherty, Road Safety Officer, said
“I hope that ‘You can’t turn back time’ will impact on the behaviour of all road users in our County and beyond and help to make our roads safer by reducing the number of injuries and collisions. Let’s hope it stops a Garda, from having to do the toughest job there is. Whilst those numbers may have reduced over the years, it’s important to remember that these are far from simply ‘numbers’. Each one is a life gone, a family grieving, an empty chair at Christmas, a mother, father, son or daughter never coming home. Each one is a knock on the door. Each one is a family turned upside down with a few words from one of us."
So this year, make sure you take these few small steps and you could save a life:
Take those extra couple of seconds to check at junctions not just for oncoming vehicles, but how fast they’re approaching.
Check your blind spot before starting an overtake, and when you’re out, gauging again whether it really is safe to pass.
Check your lights and tyres are all in working order.
Take that time for others.
Let’s take another step together along the road to zero this year.
